NCJ Number
215724
Journal
Security Journal Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 33-44
Date Published
2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study investigated how the characteristics of hotel visitors and the circumstantial factors of the hotel impacted criminal victimization among hotel visitors in Florida.
Abstract
A distinctive pattern of criminal victimization emerged between foreign and American hotel visitors: foreign visitors were more likely to be robbed while American visitors were more likely to be burglarized at their hotel. Foreign visitors were also more likely to suffer multiple property losses than their American counterparts. Both robberies and burglaries were more likely to occur in areas outside the hotel, such as the parking lot. American visitors were more likely to experience car burglaries and their demographic characteristics, such as gender and age, were significantly correlated with car burglary victimization. The findings suggest the need for hotels to increase their security, particularly in the areas surrounding the hotel. Offense-incident reports of 564 hotel crimes between 2000 through 2003 were gathered from the Miami-Dade Police Department and were analyzed in terms of victim/visitor demographic characteristics, characteristics of the crime, and hotel-related characteristics. Logistic regression models were used to analyze the effect of visitor characteristics and hotel factors on criminal victimization against hotel visitors. Future research should examine how the behavioral patterns of tourists’ impacts criminal victimizations at hotel settings. Tables, references