Places that attract large numbers of people for reasons unrelated to crime produce crime as a by-product of the crowd.
The Brantinghams distinguished in 1995 between a station or shopping centre, which draws everyone and therefore incidentally draws offenders and targets into the same space, and a location known to offenders for its opportunities. The distinction matters because the remedies differ: a generator needs the opportunity designed out, and an attractor needs the reputation dismantled.
In practice
- A transport interchange has high theft counts and a low rate per passenger, and is being measured wrongly by the count.
- A festival site generates a year's worth of a town's public order incidents in four days.
- Standing
- Paired with crime attractors, where offenders come deliberately.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works