Public Perceptions of Hot Spots Policing: How Crime Reduction Stats and Stigma Narratives Affect Public Perceptions

Abstract

A robust body of evidence indicates that hot spots policing is effective at reducing crime. However, relatively few studies have examined citizens’ views of the strategy, and the limited findings that do exist are mixed. Research on message framing, meanwhile, shows that the way information is presented can shape public attitudes toward criminal justice policies. As more agencies adopt hot spots approaches, this knowledge gap provides an opportunity to understand and ultimately improve community perceptions of high visibility, deterrence based hot spots policing. We conducted a preregistered survey experiment that randomly exposed respondents (N = 2,412) to three hot spots policing frames: crime reduction effectiveness, over policing stigma, or the control. Results from the preregistered, unadjusted models indicate that the effectiveness frame significantly produced more positive attitudes toward high-visibility hot spots policing, while the stigma frame produced null results. Our results suggest that agencies should pair clear communication of crime reduction evidence with a simultaneous acknowledgment of stigma concerns when introducing hot spots strategies to the public.