Urban Crime Patterns (A Methodological Review) (From Link Between Crime and the Built Environment, Volume 2, P C17-C23, 1980, by Tetsuro Motoyama et al - See NCJ-79544)

• NCJ Number: 79546
• Author(s): T Motoyama; H Rubenstein; P Hartjens
• Date Published: 1980
• Length: 7 pages
• Corporate Author: American Institutes for Research
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Available on microfiche from NCJRS as NCJ-79544.

Annotation

This review assesses Sarah Boggs' development and testing of a crime measure that considers not only the number of offenses in an area, but also opportunities and the number of offenders living in an area.

Abstract

Boggs' study developed a new measure of crime rates that encompasses the number of criminal (environmental) opportunities in an area. Based on the methodology used in the development of this 'new crime occurrence rate,' the study analyzed archival data from the St. Louis Police Department and computed the crime occurrence rate for each of the 128 census tracts in the city. The 12 crime rates developed (1 for each major type of crime, with an appropriate corresponding definition of environmental opportunity) were compared with standard crime rates, and their interrelationships were analyzed. In addition, the 12 crime-specific rates were correlated with criminal offender rates (rate of crime per offender living in area) and three social area variables (social rank, urbanization, and segregation). The study was exploratory and did not include hypothesis testing. The conclusions from the study are that (1) targets in central business districts are not the most exploited in the city, nor are exploited targets limited to neighborhoods in which the offender live; (2) familiarity between offenders and their targets is evidenced by the exploitation of types of targets in offender neighborhoods; (3) targets in areas of high social rank adjoining areas with large numbers of offenders appear to provide abundant opportunities for commercial crime; and (4) variables other than social rank, urbanization, and racial demography must be considered in order to explain the occurrence of rape. Although each of these conclusions is supported by the data, several conclusions are based on weak operational definitions. All offender data are conditional on arest and cannot be generalized to the unarrested offender population. A major contribution of the study is the innovative operational definition of crime. (Author summary modified)