Purpose

A considerable amount of police evaluation research focuses on innovative approaches to reduce crime at places. This is hardly coincidental; policing and place-based scholars have found crime is highly concentrated, and when police focus on these places, they can prevent and reduce crime. The regularity of such findings led Weisburd (2015) to assert the existence of a “law of crime concentration.” Given that bold assertion, the authors test whether the law of crime concentration is generalizable to one of the most common public safety concerns that police handle—traffic crashes.

Design/methodology/approach

To determine whether the law of crime concentration applies to traffic crashes, the authors examined crash locations and times in all counties in Utah across four years. Following and expanding on Weisburd's methods, the authors calculate the bandwidth of concentration for these crashes and analyze various types by severity and possible explanations for variations in crash concentrations across the state.

Findings

A small proportion of street segments and intersections experience a disproportionately high number of crashes, and the degree of concentration of crashes may be even higher than that of crime. Further, there are variations in the levels of crash concentration across counties and in the severity of injuries resulting from the crashes.

Practical implications

Place-based criminologists and policing scholars have not often explored traffic crashes in their analyses. Yet, traffic problems take up a significant amount of law enforcement time and resources and are often priorities for most law enforcement agencies. Given what the authors know from traffic, policing and crime and place research, targeted approaches at micro traffic crash hot spots can be beneficial for public safety prevention.

Originality/value

This study is the first to explore the application of Weisburd's Law of Crime Concentration to traffic crashes. Given that police spend a significant amount of time and resources on traffic-related problems in their jurisdiction, finding more effective, evidence-based approaches to address this public safety concern should be a high priority for police and researchers alike.

中文翻译：

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韦斯伯德犯罪集中定律适用于交通事故吗？对治安和交通执法的影响

目的

大量的警察评估研究侧重于减少地方犯罪的创新方法。这绝非巧合。警务和地方学者发现犯罪高度集中，当警察集中精力在这些地方时，就可以预防和减少犯罪。这些发现的规律性使得 Weisburd (2015) 断言存在“犯罪集中规律”。鉴于这一大胆的断言，作者测试了犯罪集中法则是否可以推广到警察处理的最常见的公共安全问题之一——交通事故。

设计/方法论/途径

为了确定犯罪集中法则是否适用于交通事故，作者检查了四年来犹他州所有县的事故地点和时间。遵循并扩展了韦斯伯德的方法，作者计算了这些事故的集中度带宽，并按严重程度分析了各种类型，以及对全州事故集中度变化的可能解释。

发现

一小部分路段和交叉路口的交通事故发生率过高，而且交通事故的集中程度甚至可能高于犯罪的集中程度。此外，各县的事故集中程度以及事故造成的伤害严重程度也存在差异。

实际影响

地方犯罪学家和警务学者在他们的分析中并不经常探讨交通事故。然而，交通问题占用了大量执法时间和资源，并且往往是大多数执法机构的首要任务。鉴于作者从交通、治安、犯罪和场所研究中了解到的情况，针对微型交通事故热点地区采取有针对性的方法可能有益于公共安全预防。

原创性/价值

本研究首次探讨了韦斯伯德犯罪集中定律在交通事故中的应用。鉴于警方花费大量时间和资源来解决其管辖范围内的交通相关问题，寻找更有效、基于证据的方法来解决这一公共安全问题应该成为警方和研究人员的首要任务。