Tracking Risk for Crime Throughout the Day: An Examination of Jersey City Robberies

Abstract

This study examines temporal variations in the spatial influence of environmental features, such as bars and vacant buildings, on criminal behavior across microlevel places. Specifically, 17 environmental risk factors and their spatial influences are identified for calendar year 2014 street robberies in Jersey City, NJ. To explore temporal variation, risk factors and their spatial influences on crime are identified across 12 discrete 2-hr time intervals. The results demonstrate that the risk factors for street robbery varied across the course of a day. In fact, mapping the most vulnerable places for street robbery revealed that while many of the same environmental features remain high risk throughout the day, their influence varied. These results suggested that there was a temporality to robbery and that it is likely due to the interaction between physical vulnerabilities from the built environment and social behaviors of people at these places. This demonstrates the importance of considering the temporal dimension of criminal behavior as results show that people use and interact with their environment differently throughout the course of the day.

Spatial pattern of burglary in residential neighbourhoods: a case study of Abuja, Nigeria

“…The most common prevention mechanism used in the study area is the security locks, which is not usually efficient against events of burglary. Routine activity theory sees three concepts: rhythm, tempo and timing which can clearly be seen in the study area (Caplan et al , 2021). Rhythm has to do with regular periodicity in which burglary events occur, which is mostly at night; tempo of burglary events has to do with the number of burglary cases for the total examination period, which has a total of 636 incidents; and timing has to do with the coordination of interdependent activities in the area which influences burglary events.…”

The crime and the place: Robbery in the night‐time economy

“…Not only do differences in the offence process exist but, as stated before, the frequency of robbery occurring varies over time and at different locations. For example, Caplan et al (2020) demonstrated temporality in personal robbery hotspots and associated this with an interaction between physical vulnerabilities of places and social behaviours of people who use these spaces. As stated before, robbery has frequently been linked to the NTE (e.g.…”

“…For example, Caplan et al. (2020) demonstrated temporality in personal robbery hotspots and associated this with an interaction between physical vulnerabilities of places and social behaviours of people who use these spaces. As stated before, robbery has frequently been linked to the NTE (e.g.…”