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This introductory chapter introduces the idea of hot spots policing by tracing its origins to two key studies in the development of modern police strategies. In 1974, the Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment challenged the ability of police patrol as a crime prevention approach. In 1995, the Minneapolis Hot Spots Experiment showed that police could prevent crime if they focused on high crime hot spots. This chapter also introduces a key objection to hot spots policing, that it will simply displace crime to other areas. Focusing on the Jersey City Drug Market Analysis Experiment and the Jersey City Displacement and Diffusion study, the chapter reveals why this argument has not hindered the development of hot spots approaches. Indeed, there is much stronger evidence that hot spots policing will lead to a diffusion of crime prevention benefits than that it will lead to crime displacement. Adding to the argument for hot spots policing, the chapter also shows that crime hot spots evidence considerable stability over time, making them an efficient focus for crime prevention. Finally, the diffusion of hot spots policing as a concept in American policing is examined.

Research suggests that it is time for police to shift from person‐based policing to hot spots policing. While such a shift is largely an evolution in trends that have begun over the last few decades, it will nonetheless demand radical changes in data collection in policing, in the organization of police activities, and particularly in the overall world view of the police. Hot spots policing should be privileged over traditional methods of crime prevention because it is rooted in an evidence‐based model of police practices, seeks to change crime places rather than criminal offenders, and for its potential to improve police legitimacy among community members. This final chapter presents summary arguments for hot spots policing and then discusses some of operational changes necessary in American police departments to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for crime prevention in focusing on problem places.

This chapter analyses ignition and thermonuclear burn in some detail. It first considers the simplest case of a preassembled, spherically symmetric configuration with high average density and a central hot spot. Self-heating and ignition conditions are determined, and basic aspects of the physics of thermonuclear burn waves are analysed. Simple analytical treatments are used to provide understanding of results of complex numerical simulations. Next, the dynamics of hot spot formation is addressed. Most of the material in this chapter concerns localized ignition, by a hot spot immersed in a colder fuel, followed by burn propagation. Emphasis is in particular on central ignition of initially isobaric and initially isochoric configurations (isobaric ignition and isochoric ignition, respectively). However, ignition of a uniformly heated fuel, which is referred to as volume ignition, is also studied.

Energy gain of ICF targets is modelled for different ignition configurations, such as isobaric ignition from a hot spot leading to propagating burn into cold fuel. Gain curves are presented, depending on few physical parameters. The gain model provides scaling relations for optimal gain, which are important for the general assessment and optimization of ICF power production. As an outstanding result, the window of ignition in the plane spanned by driving power versus drive energy is derived in a purely analytic way. Also, the energy gain obtained from isochoric hot spot ignition and from volume-ignited configurations is discussed.

This chapter describes investigations of the interaction of phonons with magnetically quantized two-dimensional (2-D) electron systems including the quantum Hall states, with particular attention to work using acoustic phonons as probes. This includes studies of phonon emission from the two diagonally opposite ‘hot spots’ of a Hall bar where the current enters and leaves. One study detected the phonons using bolometers placed opposite the corners and, in another, the temperature increases at the ‘hot spots’ were indicated by the thickness of superfluid helium film covering the Hall bar. Information has also been obtained on the frequency spectrum of the emitted phonons. Studies have been made of the location and frequency dependence of the absorption of phonons in the integer states. Phonon absorption studies of the fractional quantum Hall state provide support for the magnetoroton picture, and the fruitful studies of the quantum Hall states using surface acoustic waves are reviewed in detail.

The concept of fast ignition of inertial fusion targets is to separate fuel compression from fuel ignition and to ignite precompressed fuel by a separate external beam acting as an injected trigger. Hot spot ignition then occurs from a position at the periphery of the compressed, approximately isochoric fuel configuration. The injected trigger has to ignite the fuel within a time interval shorter than the hydrodynamic disintegration time of typically 10 to 100 ps. Laser fast ignition is the leading option for the ignitor beam, making use of picosecond petawatt laser pulses. These pulses produce laser hole boring and highly directed, relativistic electron beams, which may transport the ignition energy through the overdense plasma corona. Problems like beam filamentation and solutions like cone-guided injection as well as corresponding experiments are discussed.

This chapter uses the modified boat metamodel from Chapter 4 as a lens for examining the assumptions behind the “criminology of place.” The view here is that place criminology is useful for tertiary prevention and crime control but has limited promise as a framework for understanding the dynamics behind crime patterns, levels, and changes in communities. Further, it suggests that hot spots, albeit practically useful for many purposes, are philosophically and empirically problematic as a foundational unit in a criminology of place. It also considers whether other geographic units can serve as foundational units in a place-based criminology.

This chapter explores the basic relationships between the developmental patterns of crime described in Chapter 3 and social disorganization and opportunity variables identified in Chapters 5 and 6. It begins by developing an overall model of factors that influence developmental trends of crime at place. This model allows us to compare and contrast the importance of social disorganization and opportunity theories for understanding crime at place. The chapter then examines what characteristics of places distinguish hot spots of crime from places with little or no crime, or places that experience “crime waves” from “crime drops”.

This chapter examines whether social disorganization theory is relevant to the criminology of place. Do characteristics of social disorganization cluster at a very local level of geography? Are there hot spots of social disorganization as there are hot spots of crime and crime opportunities? Perhaps most important, do characteristics of social disorganization vary within larger areas of geography such as communities and neighborhoods? If characteristics of social disorganization vary only at higher geographic units, then the theory's salience for understanding the variability at micro units of geography would be limited. But if such traits vary greatly within neighborhoods and across street segments, then social disorganization theory must be considered as a potential explanatory perspective in the criminology of place.

More than 50 percent of the world's plant species and 42 percent of all terrestrial vertebrate species are endemic to the thirty-four biodiversity hot spots. Islands are of particular importance in a biodiversity conservation context as they cover about 5 percent of the Earth's land surface but have more than 35 percent of the world's vascular plants including about 50,000 endemics. Island organisms have always been especially vulnerable to human activities. Because of human-induced climate change, native species face further threatening challenges including a rise in sea level of, according to recent estimates, between 2 and 15 meters in the next 100 years. Over 35 years ago, Sherwin Carlquist, in his book Island Biology (1974), defined a series of characteristics common to many organisms from islands throughout the world as the island syndrome. From a conservation point of view, it is informative to consider some of the island syndrome characteristics in the context of climate change. The characteristics of Carlquist's island syndrome do not seem to help either adaptation or migration.

When police focus on small high-crime areas—hot spots—they can reduce crime, at least in the short term. But what about interventions that alter the physical and social environment of the place and do not necessarily involve police? This chapter examines the effectiveness of these types of place interventions to reduce crime. It first defines proprietary places—the sites of the interventions. Next it shows why places are important. It then presents findings of a systematic review of place-based crime prevention evaluations. The final section explores the implications of findings: the need to tailor-make interventions and the use of what we call “own the place, own the crime” prevention.

Biodiversity concepts have been challenged recently by a more complex view that diversity of species traits, and not just their abundance, is important for ecological function. The concept of functional trait biodiversity is important for cities because it conveys the importance of ecosystem protection during development. Urban biodiversity focuses on novel human-made ecosystems and the ecological systems that are transformed by anthropogenic factors. Novel urban ecosystems often have low density and variety of flora and fauna, primarily due to aesthetic preferences for certain plant material in urban green spaces. Urbanization is growing in biodiversity hot spots, which are biogeographic regions where biodiversity is threatened by city growth. Cities have begun taking steps to enhance biodiversity through climate change polices that are linked to ecosystem services.

This chapter explains that most of the prisoners’ autobiographical narratives have hot spots—speakers’ choices of words, scenes and the like. Speakers construct a showcasing of their previous events, which would eventually lead them to examine their past actions. For instance, a prisoner named Kingston used constructed dialogue to create engaging and entertaining scenes. Afterwards, he contemplates his past actions, during which he overtly used metadiscourse. Such a management of discourse shows a speaker at work crafting a narrative and also casting his life experience in the ongoing narratives of others. This method suggests that the presentation of the self can be considered as the reshaping of the self.

For many communities, exposure to mercury through fish consumption is an exemplary case of environmental injustice. Groups that rely on fishing for food, cultural identity, spiritual wellbeing, or economic prosperity are more vulnerable to mercury pollution. The vulnerability is heightened because sources and hotspots of mercury are found disproportionately in areas near communities of color, low-income and immigrant communities, and indigenous peoples. This chapter reviews cases where mercury has impacted the health, culture, and identity of local communities. Such communities are victims of environmental injustice because they have derived little or no benefit from the products and services of mercury-releasing industries, but they now bear the burden of the wastes left behind. Existing strategies for reducing mercury exposure are not always effective in communities at risk. Fish advisories that warn of health risks from eating contaminated fish themselves perpetuate environmental injustice. The shift in policy from risk reduction to risk avoidance places these communities in a lose-lose situation: either eat fish and suffer the health effects from contaminants or do not eat fish and suffer the health and cultural effects of losing a critical diet food. By allowing significant mercury contamination to remain in place while advising the population at risk to change their lifestyle, regulators are indirectly perpetuating discrimination against communities that attach different normative values to fish.

The Hawaiian biota is often explained as the result of dispersal from Asian and American mainlands, either direct or by island hopping. Models of intraplate volcanism include the mantle plume/hot spot model (Wilson-Morgan model) and recent alternatives based on plate flexure. Features such as the Line Islands (now atolls) and Musicians Seamounts are proposed as former high islands and possible source areas for the Hawaiian biota. Some reconstructions have proposed that at one time, in the Oligocene, none of the Hawaiian Islands were emergent. The inferences supporting this are, however, problematic. The Hawaiian biota shows biogeographic affinities with Asia, America (especially California and the Caribbean), and the southeastern Pacific. Instead of interpreting these areas as centers of origin, the patterns are discussed here in terms of persisting metapopulations and regional tectonics.

This chapter examines dynamic coordination in Gestalt perception by focusing on the problem of accumulating local errors and the trade-off between spatial and temporal resolution in pictorial representations. It illustrates the first issue by using an old and wonderful architectural mystery, the enigma of the Florence Dome, and the second issue using the history of photography. The solutions to both problems are based on global geometry. The two classic examples are accompanied by visual phenomena showing the relevance of symmetry-based representations in the dynamic coordination of visual perception. The chapter also looks at the unsolved problem of segmentation in vision, contrast sensitivity maps and image compression in the visual cortex, and how synchronous firing of orientation-tuned neurons mediates the compression and provides “hot-spots” in the neural representation of the segmented visual input.

Galápagos tortoises demonstrate the special “creative force” of evolution in the archipelago, having radiated into 15 species—each with a characteristic shell shape—within the last 3.2 million years. Formed over an active mid-ocean volcanic hotspot, Galápagos islands have also changed dramatically in the same period, providing new and diverse “petri dishes” for tortoise evolution. In these new homes, which are low, dry islands, where the tortoise’s main food is prickly pear cactus (which has concurrently evolved a protective treelike stature), tortoises evolved impressive new features, including saddlebacked shells and extra-long limbs. On all the islands where they occur, tortoises serve as “ecological engineers,” building suitable niches for themselves (and incidentally for other species). In the case of domed-shell tortoises, those niches include tortoise-maintained wallows, meadows, and migration trails. Heavily hunted in Galápagos history, most tortoise species are rebounding today, some from tortoises rediscovered in the novel places they had been carried by early mariners in their quest for food.

Observations occur in school every day but are often not planned, systematic, or recorded for the purpose of improving school climate. Observations, however, can be a valuable source of information about what students are experiencing in school and where those experiences are taking place, especially when used in combination with other monitoring tools (see Box 10.1 for tips on conducting observations). For instance, mapping (which will be described in the next section) and focus groups may point out a troubling “hot spot” on the school campus where fights or other problems among students are taking place. Observations of that location can help school leaders understand what is happening in order to plan a solution. Studies and anecdotal reports have shown that bullying, school violence, or incidents involving drugs are more likely to occur in the common areas of the school campus or in the hidden- away spots that might not get a lot of traffic. Here is a list of areas that may be the subject of an observation when trying to collect information on where problems might take place: . . . Common areas, such as cafeterias, hallways. and courtyards Playgrounds, the gym (if it’s open to students outside of PE), athletic fields, or stadiums Routes to and from school School buses Nearby parks. . . Just because students leave campus doesn’t mean that adults should no longer be concerned with their behavior. Conflicts that take place in areas off campus often lead to violence, victimization, or other incidents at school. The observation process should be thought of as a continuum. At one end are unstructured observations in which the observer is looking to take away a general sense of the activity in that area. This less- structured approach provides opportunities to see behaviors that perhaps were not expected— both good and bad. At the other end of the spectrum are very structured observation schedules that employ detailed procedures and checklists. More structured observations conducted by multiple observers can lead to more agreement on what actually was observed. These are especially useful if the observation is focusing on a particular topic.