Place-based Correlates of Motor Vehicle Theft and Recovery Measuring Spatial Influence Across Neighbourhood Context

• NCJ Number: 253366
• Journal: Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice Volume: 54 Issue: 13 Dated: August 2017 Pages: 2998-3021
• Date Published: August 2017
• Author(s): Eric Piza; Shun Feng; Leslie Kennedy; Joel Caplan
• Length: 24 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2012-IJ-CX-0038
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description

Annotation

This study focused on the intersection of two crime-pattern perspectives through a spatial analysis of Motor Vehicle Theft (MVT) and Motor Vehicle Recovery (MVR) in Colorado Springs, CO.

Abstract

Social scientists have long shown great interest in the spatial correlates of crime patterns. A subset of the literature has focused on how micro-level spatial factors influence the formation of crime hot spots. At the same time, tangential research has highlighted how neighborhood disadvantage influences crime occurrence. The current study first conducted a Risk Terrain Modelling analysis to identify spatial risk factors significantly related to MVT and MVR occurrence. It then tested whether the spatial influences of the criminogenic risk factors differed across traditional measures of neighborhood disadvantage. Findings suggest that although a citywide effect is evident for multiple risk factors, their spatial influence on crime significantly varied across neighborhood contexts. (publisher abstract modified)