NCJ Number
226748
Journal
Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 93-130
Date Published
February 2009
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This paper tests the spatial choice model on how robbers choose their target areas.
Abstract
It was demonstrated that patterns of robbery location choice were related to the theoretically meaningful characteristics of the target areas, to the areas where offenders lived, to the joint characteristics of the two areas, and to the characteristics of the offenders themselves. It was also found that the presence of illegal drugs and prostitution markets, as well as other crime generators and crime attractors, such as high schools and retail businesses, made areas attractive for robbers. Distance, as well as racial and ethnic segregation restricts the mobility of offenders. In an attempt to answer the question: what characteristics make a certain area an attractive hunting ground for offenders, this investigation brought together several theoretical and empirical traditions into a recently developed model of spatial choice. The model was estimated using a unique set of data on cleared robbery cases in Chicago and the offenders involved in them, on the communities where the offenders resided, and on those where they attacked their offenders. Tables and references