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13 Crime Sci. 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/crimsci13 and id is 1 raw text is: Langton et al. Crime Science (2024) 13:1 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-023-00199-y Crime Science The spatial patterning of emergency demand for police services: a scoping review Samuel Langton', Stijn Ruiter2* and Linda Schoonmade3 Abstract This preregistered scoping review provides an account of studies which have examined the spatial patterning of emergency reactive police demand (ERPD) as measured by calls for service data. To date, the field has gener- ated a wealth of information about the geographic concentration of calls for service, but the information remains unsynthesised and inaccessible to researchers and practitioners. We code our literature sample (N= 79) according to the types of demand studied, the spatial scales used, the theories adopted, the methods deployed and the findings reported. We find that most studies focus on crime-related call types using meso-level (e.g., neighborhood) spatial scales. Descriptive methods demonstrate the non-random distribution of calls, irrespective of their type, while corre- lational findings are mixed, providing minimal support for theories such as social disorganization theory. We conclude with suggestions for future research, focusing on how the field can better exploit open data sources to'scale-up' analyses. Keywords Police, Calls for service, Demand, Geography, Spatial Introduction Public-initiated demand for police services is referred to as 'reactive' demand. Reactive demand can be gener- ated in a number of ways, such as an in-person request for assistance out on the street, the reporting of a crime (e.g., at a police station), or as an emergency call for ser- vice (e.g., 911). The police then, if it is deemed needed, respond to the demand by supplying their services. Since the advent of computerized dispatch records, police demand has been most commonly measured using emer- gency calls for service data (Laufs et al., 2021). The char- acteristics of these data are unique. Typically, the time that the call was received and the call and/or incident *correspondence: Stinh Ruiter s.ruiter@uu.nl Netherlands Institute for the Study of crime and Law Enforcement, Armsterdam,Tne Netherlanes Departmen of Soc ogy, Utrecht University, Utrecht,The Netherlands 3 Medical Library,Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam,The Netherlands BMC location are automatically logged in the computerized dispatch system. Calls are logged irrespective of their seriousness, and irrespective of their criminal nature. The existence of such data, and their accessibility through open data licences, has sparked a wealth of research into the spatial (and in some cases, temporal) characteristics of public demand for police services, including non- crime forms of public demand (e.g., mental health crises). This preregistered (https://osf.io/5zshd/) scoping review aims to provide a descriptive account of studies which have sought to describe and/or explain the spatial pat- terning of emergency reactive police demand ('ERPD') as typically measured using emergency calls for service data. The motivations for conducting this review are threefold. First, a wealth of theoretically-grounded (and atheoretical) research has been published in an effort to identify the major (spatial) correlates of emer- gency calls for service. In doing so, researchers have built a considerable body of evidence within which we might identify 'empirical regularities' Yet, no attempt has been made to synthesise these findings. Second, ©The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This artide is licensed under a creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Lcense, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other thid party material in this artide are incuded in the artide's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not incuded in the artide's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use,you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy ofthis licece, visit httpV/creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:/creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/l/) applies to the data made available in ota s herwise stated in a credit ine to the data. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW Open Access

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