Irvine Lab for the Study of Space and Crime
This new review article surveys the field of spatial criminology, and considers recent theoretical and methodological contributions. It discusses challenges confronting the field, and needed next directions for research.
You can access the article by Dr. John R. Hipp and Seth A. Williams in the Annual Review of Criminology entitled, “Advances in Spatial Criminology: The Spatial Scale of Crime.”
Get it here.
Defining “neighborhoods” is challenging for researchers. In prior research lab members Dr. Hipp and Dr. Adam Boessen proposed a novel measure, termed “egohoods”, that captures the area surrounding a particular block (based on straight-line distance). This new study extends this idea by explicitly incorporating the street network into the measure. This approach measures street egohoods based on the local street block, and then all adjacent streets. A second definition includes all street blocks one or two streets away from the focal block. We believe that these are plausible “neighborhoods” since residents can easily come into contact one or two street blocks away from their own street block. The approach is demonstrated using data for the Southern California region, we find that this measure of immigrant neighborhoods often exhibits a robust negative relationship with levels of crime.
You can access the article by Dr. Young-an Kim and Dr. John R. Hipp in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology entitled, “Street Egohood: A New Perspective of Measuring Neighborhood Based on Urban Streets.”
Get it here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10940-019-09410-3
Studies typically measure immigrant neighborhoods based on the composition of the residential population. However, although ethnic businesses are an important component of immigrant neighborhoods, scholars often do not consider them when constructing measures of these neighborhoods. This study proposes a novel way to mesaure immigrant neighborhoods that combines information about the residential population, the presence of ethnic businesses, and the spatial distribution of these measures for creating what we term immigrant ethnic activity space (IEAS). Using data for the Southern California region, we find that this measure of immigrant neighborhoods often exhibits a robust negative relationship with levels of crime.
You can access the article by Dr. Young-an Kim, Dr. John R. Hipp, and Dr. Charis Kubrin in the Journal of Criminal Justice entitled, “Where They Live and Go: Immigrant Ethnic Activity Space and Neighborhood Crime in Southern California.”
Get it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235218303775
Although neighborhood crime levels can be impacted by the presence of businesses nearby, it is also the case that crime in the neighborhood can impact businesses. High levels of crime can reduce patronage of businesses, which can result in them going out of business, or choosing to relocate. This study uses rich annual data on businesses and crime events in the Southern California region over a number of years to explore how nearby crime events impact business decisions to go out of business, move, or even where to move. The study finds that in general, higher violent and property crime are significantly associated with both business failure and mobility, and that higher crime in a destination neighborhood reduces the likelihood that a business locates there. The study also presents findings specific to industries.
You can access the article by Dr. John R. Hipp, Seth Williams, Dr. Young-an Kim, and Dr. Jae Hong Kim in Social Science Research entitled, “Fight or Flight? Crime as a Driving Force in Business Failure and Business Mobility”.
Get it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235218303775
Given that crime events exhibit both a spatial and a temporal pattern, this study explores whether certain social and physical environment characteristics have varying relationships with crime at different times of day. The study uses a flexible nonlinear parametric approach on a large sample of street segments (and surrounding spatial area) in Southern California. The study finds different temporal and spatial patterns for key measures. The presence of total employees in the surrounding area is associated with a reduced robbery risk during the daytime, but not at night. The risk of a robbery is elevated on a high retail segment on weekends during the daytime, and on high restaurant segments into the early evening on weekends. Furthermore, the presence of retail and restaurants in the surrounding area (evidence of shopping districts) was associated with elevated robbery risk in the afternoon and well into the evening.
You can access the article by Dr. John R. Hipp and Dr. Young-an Kim in Journal of Criminal Justice entitled, “Temporal and Spatial Dimensions of Robbery: Differences across Measures of the Physical and Social Environment”.
Get it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235218303775
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