NCJ Number
72869
Date Published
1969
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The relationship between delinquents' residences and where their crimes are committed is explored, using 1960 data on delinquency gathered by a special research project in Philadelphia.
Abstract
Only index events, those offenses which resulted in personal injury or property damages, were chosen for this study because they could usually be geographically pinpointed. This data represented a 10 percent sample of delinquent events known to the Philadelphia police in 1960. The residence of each offender and the location of the offense were located on a large map of Philadelphia, and the 'taxicab' distance between the two was calculated by a map measure. Because of bias in the cluster type of sample, the only distance figure used for each offense was the arithmetic mean of all offenders participating in the offense. Distance figures were gathered into groups of five units to compensate for deficiencies in the measuring instrument. Tables and graphs show that most offenders live a short distance from their offenses. There does appear to be a falling off within a block of an offender's residence for certain types of offenses, possibly because of the risk of identification. Accomplices tend to live near one another. Following a brief review of other studies on distance and criminality, a general equation describing distance and delinquency is proposed. Based on these conclusions, a program designed to lower the number of delinquents in an area could expect offenses committed by juveniles to drop. Certain offenses, such as white collar or organized crime, might not follow the distance formula or they might simply involve a larger threshhold value. The article includes five footnotes. For related entries, see NCJ 72870-74.