NCJ Number
169409
Journal
Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1997) Pages: 505-515
Date Published
1997
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article contends that it may be misleading to draw inferences about individuals from the aggregated decay function because it conceals individual variations in ranges of operation.
Abstract
The distance-decay function suggests a spatial pattern of criminal activity whereby most crimes are committed nearer rather than farther from the criminals' own homes. The reason usually offered for this general pattern is an individual one. The costs to the criminal in terms of time, energy, and money increase with distance. It may be misleading to draw inferences about individuals from the aggregated decay function because it conceals individual variations in ranges of operation. This argument is supported by data randomly generated by the computer that show that, even when individual criminals increase their crime rate with increasing distance, a distance-decay function still emerges at the aggregate level. This is not to say that an individual-level distance-decay function does not exist, only that it must be demonstrated by data at the individual level because distance-decay effects can characterize aggregate behavior even in the absence of individual distance decay. Figures, references