Crime displacement

Crime displacement "is the relocation of crime from one place, time, target, offence, or tactic to another as a result of some crime prevention initiative”.

Description
The (by far) most common type of displacement is ‘spatial displacement’ when offenders move their criminal activities to another location. There are according to Guerette (2009), an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Florida International University in Miami, in total six types of displacement:
 * Temporal: offenders change the time at which they commit the criminal activities,
 * Target: offenders change the choice of target to another,
 * Tactical: offenders change their choice of methods used to carry out their criminal activities,
 * Spatial: offender replace their criminal activities to another location,
 * Offence: offenders switch the form of criminal activity,
 * Offender: a change in person when one offender is faced with reduced opportunities.

Crime displacement has long been viewed as a negative side effect of crime prevention efforts. According to Guerette, however, current thinking on crime displacement suggests that “beneficial or ‘benign’ displacement can occur when the harm produced by the displacement crime or problem behaviour is less than what existed before the intervention. Examples of this effect are the shift to petty thefts in stead of for example robbery, or a less concentration in terms of volume or impact of crime in certain neighbourhoods.

Displacement of terrorism
The displacement of terrorism is the relocation of terrorism from one place, time, target, offence, or tactic to another as a result of some terrorism prevention initiative. The (by far) most common type of displacement is ‘spatial displacement’ when offenders move their criminal activities to another location. There are, however, in total six types of displacement:
 * Temporal: offenders change the time at which they commit the criminal activities,
 * Target: offenders change the choice of target to another,
 * Tactical: offenders change their choice of methods used to carry out their criminal activities,
 * Spatial: offender replace their criminal activities to another location,
 * Offence: offenders switch the form of criminal activity,
 * Offender: a change in person when one offender is faced with reduced opportunities.

Displacement has long been viewed as a negative side effect of criminal and terrorist prevention efforts. But just like with crime, the current view on this topic is that terrorism prevention is effective and for most cases without the consequence of displacement.

Related subjects

 * Crime
 * Economic impact of security measures
 * Economic effects of anti-crime security measures
 * Economic effects of anti-terrorism security measures