NCJ Number
74022
Date Published
1980
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Results are reported from a study of the characteristics and typology of the distances traveled from offender residences to place of offense, using a sample of juvenile offenders.
Abstract
The data used were a sample of 872 offenses drawn from an original set of 3,837 offenses. The larger data set included all juvenile arrests made by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Police Department (Ky.) from January 1, 1974, to June 30, 1975. Fifteen items of data were compiled for each of 10 common offense categories. Eight items were obtained directly from police data; four locational variables were generated by plotting each offense and residence as paired points, while three distance measures were computer-generated from grid coordinate pairs for offense and residence addresses and a coordinate location for the cental business district (CBD). Journeys to commit offenses in Lexington followed a distance-decay pattern (decline in the number of offenses on an absolute and per unit area basis as distance from the offender's residence increases). Journey length was found to vary according to type of offense, with assault involving short distances, vandalism short-to-medium distances, petty larceny long distances, and drug offenses long journey lengths. This typology confirms White's hypothesis that crimes against persons involve shorter journeys than crimes against property. No support was found for Capone and Nichols' finding that property crimes involving a higher value of payoff had longer journeys. Suggestions are offered for further research. Tabular data and 20 notes are provided. For related papers, see NCJ 74011.