When is a hot spot a hot spot?

There is no strict threshold of the number of crimes or disorder incidents within an area that can be universally applied to describe when a hotspot is a hotspot. Hotspots are relative to the area of study. They represent areas of high crime or disorder concentration, relative to the distribution of crime and/ or disorder across the whole region of interest.

Mapping crime and disorder hotspots help statistically classify areas that have reached hotspot status. These approaches consider relativity between different areas of crime and disorder volume, and can be applied to rural areas and urban areas for identifying high concentrations of incidents. The section on Methods and techniques for identifying hotspots describes these approaches.