Policing policies in cities dependent on tourism

Abstract

Tourism has long been recognised as a crime generator, with resorts acting as honeypots for offenders. Much of the research on tourism and crime has suggested that many tourist resorts suffer higher than average crime rates and that tourists are disproportionately victimised, but also that tourists often cause crime and disorder problems. This poses a dilemma for areas seeking to expand their tourism industry and in many resort areas the police have worked in local partnerships to alleviate the problems. However, there is surprisingly little hard data available for resort areas to allow policy-makers to develop and evaluate appropriate responses. Using the author’s experiences as external advisor to a recent European initiative, this article considers the contribution of the police on two levels: first, as providers of robust data on the relationship between tourism and crime; and second, in how they might respond to the problems identified by developing effective policies and assessing their effectiveness.