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Article 1: Waples, S., Gill, M., & Fisher, P. (2009). Does CCTV displace crime? Criminology and Criminal Justice, 9(2), 207–224.

Abstract: Crime displacement is a concern often raised regarding situational crime prevention measures. A national evaluation of closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) has provided an interesting test bed for displacement research. A number of methods have been used to investigate displacement, in particular visualization techniques making use of geographical information systems (GIS) have been introduced to the identification of spatial displacement. Results concur with current literature in that spatial displacement of crime does occur, but it was only detected infrequently. Spatial displacement is found not to occur uniformly across offence type or space, notably the most evident spatial displacement was actually found to be occurring within target areas themselves. GIS and spatial analysis have been shown to complement more typical crime analysis methods and bring a much needed dimension to the investigation of displacement.

Questions that apply to this article:

1. What was the main research question in this study?
2. Describe Figure 2 and what findings are visually represented.
3. For Figure 3, describe how the data was smoothed.

​Article 2: Salfati, C. G. (2003). Offender interaction with victims in homicide: A multidimensional analysis of frequencies in crime scene behaviors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(5), 490–512.

Abstract: Homicide grows out of a transaction between individuals. This transaction is a product of the individuals and their relationship. More may therefore be understood about different “styles” of homicide by examining how an offender acts toward a victim during the crime. The analysis of the actual behaviors used by offenders at 247 single offender–single victim homicide crime scenes indicated a pattern of frequencies that follow a continuum from where the offender reacts in an impulsive way toward the emotions engendered through the conflicted interpersonal relationship with the victim, to where the offender interacts with the victim much more at a removed level, both physically and emotionally. Behaviors can thus be seen to follow a thematic pattern that can be related to underlying psychological principles, which closely relate to how an offender interacts with the victim at the crime scene.

Questions that apply to this article:

1. What were the variables of interest in this study?
2. Describe the findings in Figure 2. Do you think this was an efficient way for the researchers to visually display their findings?
3. Describe one finding from each Table (1–4) that you would consider interesting or unexpected and why.