Crime Patterns in Orlando Theme Parks

• In Event: Place, Time, and Crime

Abstract

Much research has examined the influence of ecological characteristics of cities or communities on crime distribution. Some of this work has focused on the impact of special events or specific places such as university or casino that attract a significant number of people since the influence regarding the economy, education, and policy might bring a significant impact on the life of community even on crime. In this context, tourist cities where a lot of people visit may have increased risks to criminal victimization and perhaps offending. This study illustrates crime patterns and describes the effects of tourism in Orlando where approximately 66 million people visit for various recreational theme parks including Disney World, Universal Studio, and Sea World.
For the study, various statistical techniques are utilized including geospatial mapping, local indicators of spatial association analysis (LISA), and regression analysis with data considering the autocorrelation issue between neighborhoods. The results indicate that the location of theme parks is associated with uneven crime distribution in Orlando, but those impacts vary over crime types.

Authors

• Sungil Han, University of Texas at Dallas

• Matt R. Nobles, University of Central Florida

• Alex Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas

• Nicole L. Piquero, University of Texas at Dallas