Characteristics of the direct environment and its association with homicide concentration in micro places in Latin American Cities

• In Event: Homicide and violent crime: Risk factors and weapon use

Abstract

Aim
Despite Latin American (LA) high and persistent homicide rates, research mainly focuses on macro-level covariates, relying on global north theoretical and empirical referents. The present research aims to further a multilevel, placed-based understanding of homicide in LA cities, addressing the micro-level features, that are associated with homicide concentration and to what extent are these different to those from cities in the global north.
Methods
A comparative case study of Medellin, Mexico City, and Chicago for 2019 to 2022 analyses those variables from the opportunity theory framework, such as characteristics of the direct environment, crime generators and crime attractors, with the concentration of homicides over a small proportion of micro-places of these cities. Quantitative analysis is conducted using police records and open street maps data.
Results
Preliminary results show that there is no unique set of features associated with homicide concentration for micro-places for all cities. The premise that those cities in Latin America have common features that differ from the global north referent cannot be proven. Instead, the analysis showed that each city requires their own tailored model to understand homicide concentration in micro-level units of analysis.

Author

• Catalina Mellado, University College London, UK