Land Use and Facilities That Promote Crime

This morning, at the NIJ Crime Mapping conference, I attended a presentation by Eric S. McCord on "Land Use and Facilities That Promote Crime." To summarize: if we look at types of places that produce crime, especially those that affect the areas beyond the property lines of those places, rather than focus on types of people that commit crime, we may make environmental changes that can reduce and prevent crime.

The places that promote crime:
-retail alcohol outlets
-shopping centers
-high schools
-vacant lots and buildings
-youth hang outs
-neighborhood parks
-budget motels
-red light districts/adult entertainment facilities
-public transit stops and stations
-public housing

Analysts should have map shapefiles of the above locations to study the crime problems in the buffer zones of the locations. These places have routine activities which promote crime in an area - they are criminogenic. Most of the effect occurs in a 1-2 block radius of the locations.

Some of the locations are crime promoters because they attract many people to one place, and thus provide more targets for crime - more purses to snatch, more cars to steal, etc. Some of the locations are problems because they attract those in crime-prone ages - teens. Others locations are problems because they are unsupervised by others. Some locations attract offenders.

Problem solving requires thinking about crime from a variety of angles, developing partnerships with stakeholders, and discovering the things you can change. Changing aspects of location can be much easier than changing aspects of people.

Research Article: INTENSITY VALUE ANALYSIS AND THE CRIMINOGENIC EFFECTS OF LAND USE FEATURES ON LOCAL CRIME PATTERNS by Eric S. McCord and Jerry H. Ratcliffe of Temple University