Spatiotemporal distribution of drug crimes at micro-scale: Taking NH and DM residential communities in SZ City as an example

Abstract

Drug crime is a criminal act of common concern in many places of the world. Many scholars have carried out research from different professional fields. The causes of drug-related crimes have been analyzed in the existing literature. Because of the limitations of data, there is little research on the spatial and temporal distribution of drug-related crime hotspots at the micro-scale. This study took NH and DM residential communities in SZ as an example. Based on the data of drug crime cases, this study used exploratory data analysis and spatiotemporal scanning to identify the distribution of hotspots of drug crimes. Then, by combining the spatial data of land use types and dynamic population flow, it quantitatively analyzed the influencing factors of the spatiotemporal distribution pattern of drug crime cases. The results show that: 1) Drug crimes mainly distribute in developed commercial areas and urban villages, and the hotspot distribution of drug crimes in urban villages occurred earlier than in developed commercial areas, and the scope of influence is larger in the former; 2) The distribution of drug crimes in different land types is uneven; the land use types of accommodation, tourism, and entertainment, wholesale and retail commercial department stores, and catering and business services are highly correlated with drug crimes. 3) The proportion of the area in hotspot areas with high flow of people has a certain correlation with the occurrence of drug crimes. When the proportion of hotspot areas is greater than 5% or 0, it can restrain the occurrence of drug-related crimes; when the proportion of hotspot areas is between 0 and 5%, it can promote the occurrence of drug-related crimes.

Spatial and temporal distribution characteristics and geographic contexts of civilized villages in China

“…The spatiotemporal scanning statistics clustering method has been primarily applied in the field of epidemiology [ 39 – 41 ]. With gradual development and improvement of the scanning statistics model, this method has been widely applied in geography and some analysis [ 42 , 43 ]. SaTScan software is currently a representative spatiotemporal scanning statistics software, which can conduct geographic monitoring of research objects, explore spatial or spatiotemporal agglomerations, and analyze whether there is statistical significance.…”

Influence of Places of Resident Activities on Spatial Distribution of Drug-Related Crimes

“…Moreover, the interaction between various factors appears to be mostly mutual strengthening. The most frequent correlated factors are KTVs, cyber cafes, and bars, suggesting that the concentration of drug-related crimes is closely related to locations of resident activities and that the areas with concentrated distribution of drug-related crimes are usually where restaurant services and recreational facilities are densely distributed [44]. Featuring long business hours, mixed populations, and a lack of standardized management, these places are the main breeding grounds for drug-related crimes.…”