NCJ Number
114591
Date Published
1988
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Data from Canadian cities with populations of 25,000 or more were used to test hypotheses regarding the association between urban locations and crime.
Abstract
The hypotheses were developed following a review of several theoretical perspectives: urbanization theory, inequality theory, compositional theory, and opportunity theory. The analysis used official data regarding violent crimes and property crimes during 1977 and census data for 1976. The larger cities had higher rates of both property and violent crimes, but the data did not support urbanization theory. However, results provided strong support for the opportunity thesis that the nature of certain routine activity patterns directly affects the level of crime in cities. The cities with greater dispersals of activities away from households contained more opportunities for predatory crimes, and these opportunities were translated into higher rates of both violent and property offenses. Income dispersion and relative deprivation lacked any significant effect. Further research should focus on combinations and interactions among different types of predictor variables. Table and 62 references.