Skip to start of content

Home → Publications → Reports → Trends and issues → Diffusion of benefits : evaluating a policing operation

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice

No. 278: Diffusion of benefits : evaluating a policing operation

Jerry Ratcliffe and Toni Makkai
ISBN 0 642 53841 7 ; ISSN 0817-8542
July 2004

Abstract

As part of the Australian Institute of Criminology's commitment to building an evidence base on the effects of Australian policing initiatives, this paper explores the impact of a targeted policing operation to reduce property crime. By comparing property crime data for the A.C.T. and surrounding areas of NSW, the paper finds no evidence for displacement, either spatially or by crime type, following a significant burglary reduction strategy, Operation Anchorage, which was conducted in the A.C.T. in 2001. The paper suggests that there was a diffusion of benefits as car crime and burglary in the surrounding parts of NSW (outside the intervention area) saw significant reductions. However, it is important to note that crime reduction and prevention activity can have unintended, negative consequences not measured in this analysis and that there may be other important factors not accounted for. As a consequence these results may not automatically translate to other initiatives. This paper highlights the need for on-going evaluations of crime reduction initiatives to further our understanding of both the possible displacement and the diffusion of benefits from police operations.

References