1 Article Simulating Crime Prevention Strategies: A Look at the Possibilities Elizabeth Groff ∗ and Dan Birks ∗∗ Abstract While essential, the process of developing and testing crime prevention strategies is currently an expensive and time-consuming process. In addition, there are some potential crime prevention programs that are either too costly or unethical to test empirically. What if we could test these strategies in an artificial world first? In a world of increasingly uncertain resources, simulation offers a promising methodology for experimenting with potential strategies to identify the most promising ones before they are tested empirically. This paper introduces simulation and then explores the potential of and challenges to the use of simulation models to provide valuable information about the potential effectiveness of crime prevention strategies. One potential application of simulation is discussed in detail and several others are suggested. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the potential applications of simulation model- ing for testing crime prevention strategies. The tra- ditional approach to developing crime prevention strategies involves collecting data about a specific crime problem, analyzing those data, developing and implementing appropriate strategies (which usually involves obtaining resources to change the physical environment or implement a program), and then evaluating the results (Clarke, 1997). Although ef- fective, this traditional process is resource intensive, expensive, and time consuming. In a world of in- creasingly uncertain resources, simulation offers a promising methodology for experimenting with po- tential strategies in silico before investing in empiri- cal research. ∗ Elizabeth Groff, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA. E-mail: groff@temple.edu ∗∗ Dan Birks, Research Fellow, Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, University College London, UK. E-mail: d.birks@ucl.ac.uk Most of us are familiar with computer simula- tion whether it is in the form of video games such as SimCity R  or commercial training simulators to be used by trainee pilots or armed response units in the police or military. Such simulations create computer-generated models of real-world situations by combining complex behavioral programming with graphical representations that mimic reality. Their aim is to provide environments in which indi- viduals play out scenarios that would otherwise be impossible for ethical, practical, or economic rea- sons, either as a training aid or, in the case of video games, for entertainment purposes. Recently, simulation modeling has been applied within the social sciences to better understand how people make decisions in particular situations and how those decisions translate into observable Policing, Volume 1, Number 0, pp. 1–10 doi: 10.1093/police/pan020 C  The Authors 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CSF Associates: Publius, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org Policing Advance Access published June 20, 2008