Place Management and Crime: Ownership and Property Rights as a Source of Social Control (SpringerBriefs in Crime and Place)

This brief describes the theory and evidence of a form of social control known as place management. Created by property owners, place management is an alternative to the two other domains of social control: formally created by the state and informally created by residents. It helps explain the high concentration of crime and disorder at a relatively small proportion of addresses and facilities. This volume examines the specifics of place management and extends it in three ways: to show how high crime places may radiate crime into their surroundings; to reveal networks of places that create crime hotspot spanning blocks; to demonstrate how networks of place managers influence crime throughout neighborhoods. Finally, it shows that the policy implications of place management extend far beyond the police and should include regulatory policies.

John E. Eck is professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati.  He has studied and written about crime and its control for over 40 years.  He holds a doctorate in criminology from the University of Maryland and a Masters of Public Policy from the University of Michigan.  Eck created the concept of place management in the early 1990s while studying illicit drug sales locations.  Since then, he has written many articles and books on place management theory, research, and evaluation. He is the 2016 recipient of the Ronald V. Clarke ECCA Award for Fundamental Contributions to Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis.

Shannon J. Linning is assistant professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She earned her doctorate in criminal justice with an emphasis in crime prevention from the University of Cincinnati. Her research examines how we can reduce crime at places by partnering with those in property development, business, real estate, and urban planning. Her work is published in various peer-reviewed journals including British Journal of Criminology, Crime Science, and Journal of Quantitative Criminology. Her newest book, Whose “Eyes on the Street” Control Crime? Expanding Place Management into Neighborhoods, has been nominated for the Michael J. Hindelang Outstanding Book Award through the American Society of Criminology.