Strategic Security Management

illegitimate users out of the area. The third principle of CPTED is territorial

reinforcement. Territorial reinforcement attempts to foster ownership and

responsibility of an area by legitimate users by reducing unassigned spaces.

Reducing unassigned spaces alters the perception of illegitimate users by

showing that someone is responsible for the space. Some areas, by their design,

have encouraged illegitimate users to take over the area and scared off legiti-

mate users. Property owners may implement territorial reinforcement meas-

ures to discourage the illegitimate users and over time encourage legitimate

users to return to the area.

Crime Displacement and Diffusion of Benefits

Crime Displacement

Displacement of crime is a relatively new and controversial topic in the

academic crime prevention circles. Crime displacement occurs when security

measures are effective in preventing crime where the security measures are in

place and forces the criminal to go elsewhere with less security to commit their

crimes. The security decision maker must remember that only effective crime

prevention can cause displacement.

There are six types of crime displacement: temporal, target, spatial, tactical,

perpetrator, and offender. Temporal crime displacement entails a shift in the

timing of crime to different hours of the day or days of the week when appre-

hension is less risky. Temporal displacement is one of the key reasons that

random security patrols are more effective than scheduled patrols. The ran-

domness does keep the criminals on their toes by not providing them with a

set time to commit the crime. Ta r g e t crime displacement occurs when a crim-

inal, given two equally valuable targets, will select the less risky one. Females

are typically perceived as weaker or more vulnerable than males in the crimi-

nal mind, and thus the criminal will likely select the female to victimize. Spatial

crime displacement is similar to target crime displacement with the exception

that the displacement is caused not by the actual target but by the facility itself.

An example is two convenience stores located across the street from one

another. One is well lit and has good visibility into and out of the store, while

the other is poorly lit and has signs in the windows that obstruct visibility. A

crime that may have occurred at the more secure store is displaced to the other

store. Tactical crime displacement involves the adversary changing his tactics

to commit the crime owing to the security measures that are in place. For

example, a perpetrator who finds that windows have been secured after previ-

ous attacks at a particular facility may shift tactics and find another entry point

into the facility. In perpetrator crime displacement, specific offenders are

deterred or apprehended and other offenders take their place. An example of

this type of crime displacement is law enforcement’s capture of a drug dealer

who works a certain corner in a neighborhood and whose place is taken by

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