Focus areas

The identification of an area as a hotspot provides the first step for focusing efforts that explore the factors that help to explain how crime or disorder is generated. Interest is directed to these focus areas because they provide an opportunity that helps to direct crime reduction resources to the communities that suffer most from crime and disorder problems.

Area Based

The most common approach to focussing resources is applying them to a defined and contained geographic area. Area based approaches have the common theme of the same general location, which brings with it local conditions that may also be common across the area.

A focus area should be designed as a zone that is practical to direct resources to. A street crime focus area could be a town centre, or a residential burglary focus area could be a ward or a number of enumeration districts that have been combined to make up the focus area. A partnership focus area should be designed to target and tackle the local problems, but will need to consider areas of responsibility for it to be practically applied. This will include understanding the different geographic boundaries that cover the focus area (e.g. enumeration districts, wards, parishes and beats) as these will largely relate to what information can be collected to help understand the local problems and monitor any targeted reduction resources.

Virtual communities.

A virtual communities approach to focus areas combines a number of disparate locations that show evidence of high concentrations of crime and disorder. Disparate communities across a partnership area may suffer from similar problems that drive criminal and anti-social behaviour. Combining these disparate areas into a virtual community helps to enable the focusing of efforts that explore the factors that explain how crime or disorder is generated. Identifying these areas and focusing effort towards them may reveal that each disparate area has other common problems that could be best tackled collectively rather than individually.

Virtual communities need to be designed practically. A virtual community will need to be sensitive to the manner in which crime reduction resources are targeted. A virtual community that is too disparate may suffer from problems of resource targeting. An understanding of the different geographic boundaries that cover the focus area (e.g. enumeration districts, wards, parishes and beats) will also be required as these will largely relate to what information can be collected to help understand the local problems and used to monitor any targeted reduction resources.