Exploring Land Use, Place Management, and Crime

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

Land use studies have examined how the built environment affects routine activities, and also the opportunity for crime at proximal places like street segments (e.g., Weisburd et al. 2012), and pooled places like neighborhoods and census blocks (e.g., Taylor, 1995). This study builds upon this research to further understand the relationship among specific types of proprietary places (i.e., facilities - Eck, et al., 1997), the context in which these places are situated (i.e., proximal places), and crime. For this poster, we examine the possibility that the function of particular proprietary places constrains place managers’ ability to control access and behaviors, and that crime is more dispersed among places that are more accessible to the public. We also consider how manager presence (i.e. absentee ownership) affects crime at different place types, street segments, and nearby public spaces (i.e. intersections). Using police crime data in Henderson, Nevada, we explore (1) the extent to which crime concentrations at places differ based on function/openness (i.e., owners’ ability/desire to control access), (2) the effect of absentee-ownership on place management and crime, (3) the combined effect of absentee ownership and place function on crime, and (4) the impact of methodological strategies in place management research.

Authors

• Jonathan M. Birds, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

• Tamara D Madensen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas