NCJ Number
187255
Date Published
2000
Length
68 pages
Annotation
This report examines offender’s travel-to-crime patterns using a geographical information system to explore offender and victim mobility in relation to burglary and car crime which can be used for crime pattern analysis purposes and strategic management of high volume crime.
Abstract
It is commonly assumed that greater mobility in contemporary society has led to offenders traveling longer distances to commit crime, particularly in affluent rural areas. Urban offenders often take advantage of their increasingly easy mobility. The report examines these beliefs and attempts to identify the extent to which there is evidence to support them. Researchers interviewed a sample of offenders about their travels to crime. The research focused mainly on volume crime, defined as burglary and “taking without the owner’s consent” (TWOC) or car crime. The main findings were: the vast majority of offender movements were relatively short; much travel associated with crime was driven not by plans to offend but appears to be much more dependent upon opportunities that presented themselves during normal routines; when offenders did travel to offend it was overwhelmingly local in nature; when longer range travel was involved in offending elsewhere, it was mainly in places which had strong traditional connections with the offender’s home location; and there was little evidence that offender’s traveling to offend was significantly increasing compared with the past or that new travel opportunities were changing traditional travel patterns used by offenders. The report concludes by examining the relationship between offenders’ travel to offend and victims’ travel to victimization, and how this might be analyzed as part of crime pattern analysis and used for the strategic management of crime. Tables, mappings, and references