Unpacking immigration and crime stats
Kubrin, Hipp and Owens awarded $700,000 U.S. Dept. of Justice grant to study immigration, immigration-related policies, crime
Welcome to the website for the Irvine Laboratory for the Study of Space and Crime (ILSSC) in the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine. Our group is dedicated to researching the social ecology of crime at all levels of analysis including street segments, blocks, neighborhoods, cities, counties, and metropolitan areas. [Find out more…]
Recent News
- Graduate student Cheyenne Hodgen wins Gil Geis Award
Congrats to lab member Cheyenne Hodgen, who was the recipient of the 2025 Gil Geis Award from the Department of Criminology, Law & Society at UC Irvine. This award recognizes excellence in research by a graduate student. Cheyenne received it for her research publications, including one as lead author and one as co-author published in… Read more: Graduate student Cheyenne Hodgen wins Gil Geis Award - Three lab members defend dissertation prospectuses!Congratulations to lab members Cheyenne Hodgen, Kyle Winnen, and Yuki Wang, all of whom successfully defended their dissertation prospectuses this spring, 2025. Cheyenne’s dissertation project is titled, “Understanding Criminal Opportunity: Environmental Design, Routine Activities, and Temporal Patterns of Crime.” Kyle’s dissertation project is titled, “The Subjective Experience of Inequality: Developing Critical Harm Theory to Examine… Read more: Three lab members defend dissertation prospectuses!
- Congratulations Dr. Tublitz!
Congratulations to lab member Rebecca Tublitz who successfully defended her dissertation on bail reform in Maryland this spring, 2025, and will be graduating in June. Across three studies, Rebecca examines Maryland’s statewide bail reform to evaluate its effects on judicial decision-making and public safety, and to investigate how local court contexts shape pretrial outcomes. In… Read more: Congratulations Dr. Tublitz!
Recent Publications
- Lab publication on nonlinear relationship between immigrant concentration and crime
A recent publication by lab directors Kubrin and Hipp, and alum Iris Luo explores the nonlinear relationship between immigrant concentration and crime. Consistent with much existing research generally finding that the presence of more immigrants in neighborhoods is associated with lower crime rates, this study using data from neighborhoods across the U.S. in the new… Read more: Lab publication on nonlinear relationship between immigrant concentration and crime - Lab publication on Third Places and social cohesion
Third places like bodegas and barbershops promote community well-being. “Respondents in neighborhoods with more third places report higher levels of interaction with their neighbors and greater cohesion, an effect that is most prominent in low-income neighborhoods.” That was a key result in a paper led by ILSSC alum Seth Williams. He summarizes the results of… Read more: Lab publication on Third Places and social cohesion - Lab publication on criminal justice reformHow to Think about Criminal Justice Reform: Conceptual and Practical Considerations, by Charis E. Kubrin and Rebecca Tublitz How can we improve the effectiveness of criminal justice reform efforts? Effective reform hinges on shared understandings of what the problem is and shared visions of what success looks like. But consensus is hard to come by,… Read more: Lab publication on criminal justice reform
Community Outreach
ILSSC researchers have developed several videos to better translate their research into practical, community based solutions. [Find out more…]
ILSSC publishes a number of studies by the directors and graduate students, the most recent studies are highlighted above. [Read more about our publications.]
ILSSC produces a number of tools over the course of research including academic apps and statistical packages, the most recent tools are highlighted above. [Find more of our tools.]