Book Review: Crime and Community Policing

• Author: David P. Weiss
• Published date: 01 September 2011
• Date: 01 September 2011
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016811401375
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

theft (major roadways, residential land use, government subsidized housing units, parking facili-

ties, convenience stores and gas stations, transportation hubs, andschools).Shealsoconstructs

additional models that utilize four previously untested variables (apartment complexes, food

establishments and bars, hotel/motel accommodations, and auto parts/repair shops). She tests the

base model and each of the new variables to see how well they predict which communities will

have high levels of auto theft. Her findings indicate that the base model is a good predictor, but

that an alternative model which includes the base variables and a few additional variables (apart-

ment complexes, fast food locations and bars, and auto part/auto repair shops) is a better fit for

auto theft patterns in Lexington.

Levy’s site-level analysis includes data from visits to and observation of 150 locations—75 with

two or more auto thefts in 2000–2001 and 75 matched locations with one or fewer auto thefts in

those years. For each location, researchers collected data on the number of ‘‘watchers’’(or potential

property guardians), structural features of the landscape that facilitated or hindered supervision of

potential targets (like dark streets or untrimmed bushes); the amount of regular social activity; light-

ing; and security devices. Her findings indicate that lighting and type of location (residential or com-

mercial and features of each, like availability of garage parking and/or well-supervised parking lots)

are solid predictors of auto theft hot spots in Lexington. For surveillance and security measures,

there were mixed findings. Guardians/watchers predicted auto theft concentrations in residential

areas but not commercial areas. Levy interprets this as evidence that ‘‘the quality of the Watcher

is more important than the quantity of Watchers; those with direct ties to the community are more

likely to prevent and report crimes than those without such ties’’ (p. 166). Security measures, too,

were related to lower levels of auto theft in residential, but not commercial, areas.

Opportunity, Environmental Characteristics, and Crime will appeal to multiple audiences.

Scholars will appreciate the extensive literature review and how Levy brings together multiple the-

oretical perspectives and research traditions to build a model for predicting and analyzing a specific

type of street crime. Practitioners will appreciate the policy recommendations Levy explores for

Lexington and similar locations concerned about reducing property crime. It is important to

acknowledge that the organization and clarity of the text detract from its overall impact, especially

in the first part of the book, where some of the material is repetitive and could be more coherently

synthesized than it is. In addition, readers will likely have varied concerns about the study’s meth-

odology and its usefulness for guiding future research. The author, however, gives these limitations

attention in Chapter 9, where she makes clear the host of factors (the one-city sample size and the

structural characteristics of that target city, for example) that are important to keep in mind when

assessing and applying her work. Overall, the book may have some organizational and readability

flaws, but the contribution it makes to the field of environmental criminology, its situatedness in

multiple literatures, its interdisciplinary appeal, and its blend of practical and theoretical impacts

will likely balance them out for most readers.

M. A. Sozer

Crime and Community Policing El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2009. x, 168 pp. $60.00.

ISBN: 978-1-59332-379-0

Reviewed by: David P. Weiss, Fitchburg State University, Fitchburg, MA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016811401375

Mr. M. Alper Sozer, a graduate of the Turkish National Police Academy and current researcher on

issues of international terrorism and transnational crime, has written yet another book on the efficacy

360 Criminal Justice Review 36(3)