Public Area CCTV and Crime Prevention: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

In recent years, there has been a marked and sustained growth in the use of closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras to prevent crime in public places in the USA and other Western nations. Amidst this expansion and the associated public expenditure, as well as concerns about their efficacy and social costs, there is an increasing need for an evidence‐based approach to inform CCTV policy and practice. This paper reports on an updated systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effects of CCTV on crime in public places. Evaluations were included if CCTV was the main intervention and the design was of high methodological quality. Forty‐four evaluations met the inclusion criteria. The results suggest that CCTV caused a modest (16%) but significant decrease in crime in experimental areas compared with control areas. This overall result was largely driven by the effectiveness of CCTV schemes in car parks, which caused a 51% decrease in crime. Schemes in most other public settings had small and nonsignificant effects on crime: a 7% decrease in city and town centers and in public housing communities. Public transport schemes had greater effects (a 23% decrease overall), but these were still nonsignificant. Schemes evaluated in the UK were more effective than schemes evaluated in the USA and other countries, but this was largely driven by the studies in the car parks. Implications for policy and research are discussed.     

The relationship between antisocial stereotypes and public CCTV systems: exploring fear of crime in the modern surveillance society

Abstract

Situational crime deterrence measures like CCTV are not always associated with reductions in fear of crime. This study explores this unexpected finding by investigating the interaction between target type and the presence of a CCTV camera, in order to test the effect this has on impressions of the target and corresponding fear of the location the target was shown in. Participants (n=120) were shown either a picture of a male ‘skinhead’, a ‘studious’ female, or no one within an urban setting in which an obvious CCTV camera was either present or absent. Participants then rated the scene using scales estimating crime frequency, worry and target activity. Estimates of location safety fell for the male ‘skinhead’ target and activity impressions were more negative, but only when a CCTV camera was also present. Ironically, in some circumstances, public crime deterrence measures may prime pre-existing negative stereotypes about others and so foster suspicion, undermine trust in others, and increase fear of crime.     

The effects of closed-circuit television on crime: meta-analysis of an English national quasi-experimental multi-site evaluation

This article reports results obtained in an English national quasi-experimental multi-site evaluation of 14 closed-circuit television (CCTV) projects in residential areas, town and city centers, a city hospital, and car parks (parking lots). Both police and victimization data were collected before and after the installation of CCTV in target, control and buffer areas, and police Divisions. The results showed that CCTV was effective in reducing crimes in train station car parks but not in city centers or residential areas, seemed to be effective in reducing vehicle crimes (but not other types of crimes), and was most effective when the degree of coverage by CCTV was high and when CCTV was combined with other interventions such as improved lighting. Implications for situational crime prevention theory are drawn. There was no evidence of displacement or diffusion of benefits. It is concluded that CCTV needs to be implemented more effectively, based on an analysis of the crime problem and its causes, and needs to be evaluated using a randomized experimental design.

Hot spots policing and crime prevention: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Crime scholars and practitioners have argued that police actions should be focused on high-risk crime places rather than spread thinly across the urban landscape. This review examines five randomized controlled trials of the effects of concentrating police enforcement efforts on crime hot spots. The findings of these evaluations suggest that focused police actions can prevent crime and disorder in crime hot spots. A meta-analysis of the effect sizes from the five experiments reveals a statistically significant mean effect size for hot spots policing interventions; this suggests overall reductions in citizen calls for service in the treatment hot spots relative to the control hot spots. These studies also suggest that focused police actions at specific locations do not necessarily result in crime displacement. Although these evaluations reveal that these programs work in preventing crime, additional research is needed to unravel other important policy-relevant issues such as community reaction to focused police enforcement efforts.     

The impact of CCTV on fundamental rights and crime prevention strategies: The case of the Catalan Control Commission of Video surveillance Devices

Many authors have written about issues related to privacy, legitimacy and efficiency in relation to CCTV systems in public space as a crime prevention strategy. Some have approached them separately; others have tried to come up with more comprehensive approaches. Few, however, have dealt with how such concerns have been put into practice by those who have to decide on the uptake of CCTV. This article considers some reflections on efficacy, legitimacy and privacy in relation to CCTV, as an introduction to the case of how the members of the Control Commission of Video surveillance Devices in Catalonia took these issues into consideration and interpreted the Law when deciding whether to approve a petition submitted by the City Council to install three cameras in Barcelona’s public space in 2003. It concludes by drawing some conclusions from the process, as a way to highlight the complexity of the policy process around surveillance in open, public spaces.     

Surveillance cameras and crime: a review of randomized and natural experiments

Research on the effectiveness of surveillance cameras in reducing crime suffers from potential threats to causal validity. This paper reviews seven studies that address some of these problems using the rigorous research designs of randomized and natural experiments. Included studies that reported changes in total crime found crime reductions ranging from 24 to 28% in public streets and urban subway stations, but no desirable effects in parking facilities or suburban subway stations. Moreover, surveillance cameras may help reduce unruly behaviour in football stadiums and theft in supermarkets/mass merchant stores. These findings indicate that video surveillance can reduce crime in several settings.     

论视频监控的犯罪预防功能及犯罪侦查价值

各国的犯罪预防理论发展至今,已经形成了比较完善的犯罪预防体系,主要包括司法预防、社会预防和情景预防三种模式。在我国的犯罪预防体系中,向来重视司法预防和社会预防,而对情景预防关注不够,情景预防措施尚不完善。作为一种对犯罪的干预,视频监控是一种对情境犯罪的干预,研究发掘其在犯罪预防中的作用对完善犯罪预防体系具有重要意义。同时,视频监控系统在犯罪侦查方面也具有重要作用。     

A Novel Pixel‐Based Method to Estimate the Instantaneous Velocity of a Vehicle from CCTV Images

In traffic forensic identifications, it was usually unfavorable that estimated velocities of questioned vehicles derived from frame‐based methods eventually turned out to be close to but a bit less than speed limits. In this paper, a novel pixel‐based method was presented to estimate vehicles’ relatively instantaneous velocities. First, two adjacent pixels’ actual distance was acquired from the closed‐circuit television (CCTV) images. Then, the instantaneous average velocity within this one frame interval time (FIT) was calculated out. The frame‐based method and its evaluating result were also introduced in this paper. The results showed that the velocity estimated by this new pixel‐based method was higher than which derived from the frame‐based method. Employing this presented novel method in these cases, it could be more accurately identified whether or not the vehicles had exceeded the speed limits, and then the responsibilities could be consequently assigned impartially.     

Decision support for using mobile Rapid DNA analysis at the crime scene

Mobile Rapid DNA technology is close to being incorporated into crime scene investigations, with the potential to identify a perpetrator within hours. However, the use of these techniques entails the risk of losing the sample and potential evidence, because the device not only consumes the inserted sample, it is also is less sensitive than traditional technologies used in forensic laboratories. Scene of Crime Officers (SoCOs) therefore will face a ‘time/success rate trade-off’ issue when making a decision to apply this technology.In this study we designed and experimentally tested a Decision Support System (DSS) for the use of Rapid DNA technologies based on Rational Decision Theory (RDT). In a vignette study, where SoCOs had to decide on the use of a Rapid DNA analysis device, participating SoCOs were assigned to either the control group (making decisions under standard conditions), the Success Rate (SR) group (making decisions with additional information on DNA success rates of traces), or the DSS group (making decisions supported by introduction to RDT, including information on DNA success rates of traces).This study provides positive evidence that a systematic approach for decision-making on using Rapid DNA analysis assists SoCOs in the decision to use the rapid device. The results demonstrated that participants using a DSS made different and more transparent decisions on the use of Rapid DNA analysis when different case characteristics were explicitly considered. In the DSS group the decision to apply Rapid DNA analysis was influenced by the factors “time pressure” and “trace characteristics” like DNA success rates. In the SR group, the decisions depended solely on the trace characteristics and in the control group the decisions did not show any systematic differences on crime type or trace characteristic.Guiding complex decisions on the use of Rapid DNA analyses with a DSS could be an important step towards the use of these devices at the crime scene.