The Relative Context of Burglary: Do Neighborhood Economic Conditions predict where Offenders Burglarize?

• In Event: Criminogenic Moves Within and Across Space

Abstract

A central question in criminological research is explaining the spatial distribution of crime and criminals across the neighborhoods of a city. While previous studies have focused on the movements of offenders, we seek to understand how the characteristics of an offender’s neighborhood relative to other neighborhoods within a particular city might influence which neighborhoods are ultimately selected for crime. More specifically, do offenders living in predominately poor neighborhoods offend in similar, more advantaged, or even poorer neighborhoods relative to their own home? This study examines the geographic patterns between where offenders live and where they commit their crimes. These relationships will be examined in Tampa, Florida using data for all arrests for burglaries in the city of Tampa from January 2000 through September 2012. Using data which captures both the offender’s home neighborhood and the neighborhood they committed their crime, we can examine the differences between these neighborhoods to gain insight into the variation in crime across neighborhoods.

Authors

• Alyssa Chamberlain, Arizona State University

• Lyndsay N. Boggess, University of South Florida