NCJ Number
195424
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: 2002 Pages: 27-46
Date Published
2002
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses the use and interpretation of location quotients of crime (LQCs) in assessing local concentrations of crime and in comparing local crime structures over time and across areas.
Abstract
The authors also address the issues involved in using regional crime structures as indicators for the concept of "area crime careers." This is followed by a discussion of the use of LQCs as measures of crime structure, as well as their statistical properties. Another section of the paper illustrates the application of LQCs to the study of area crime structures and area crime careers in two Australian localities. The authors show that LQCs follow a multivariate logistic-normal distribution. This allows using standard statistical procedures to draw inferences about LQCs. The paper advises that the crime structure of local areas is associated with the structural factors related to local social and economic conditions that influence communities' ability to develop formal and informal mechanisms of social control. LQCs enable practitioners to study the main features of the crime structures of local areas in relation to broader geographical areas. This enhances the potential of LQC-based analysis to consider the role that environmental clues and conditions, as well as situational factors, play in shaping local levels of crime. LQCs emphasize crime structure rather than volume. In addition, they are relative measures, and as such their interpretation varies according to the level of aggregation of the data and the geographic unit used as reference. Crime analyses must make use of local knowledge about the features of the local areas and their immediate surroundings. This study argues that, rather than volume of crime, crime concentration is what matters for local policing. Local crime structures that are dominated by specific types of offenses may require the deployment of specialist police resources. On the other hand, diversified crime structures may require generalist resources. 8 tables, 33 notes, and appended statistical properties of LQCs