Location Quotients of Crime and Their Use in the Study of Area Crime Careers and Regional Crime Structures
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Location Quotients of Crime and Their Use in the Study of Area Crime Careers and Regional Crime Structures Carlos Carcach and Glenn Muscat1 This paper discusses the application of location quotients in the study of area crime profiles. The paper extends the current literature considerably by demonstrating the statistical properties of this measure. Location quotients of crime (LQCs) are used to assess the evolution of area crime careers by analysing changes in area crime structures over time, to compare crime structures across geographical locations, and to examine the role that socio-economic characteristics play in shaping the crime profile of areas. Key Words: Location quotients of crime; area crime profiles; area crime careers; local crime structures. Introduction This paper discusses the use and interpretation of location quotients of crime (LQCs) in assessing local concentrations of crime and in comparing local crime structures over time and across areas. The second section addresses the issues involved in using regional crime structures as indicators for the concept of ‘area crime careers’. The third section discusses the use of LQCs as measures of crime structure, and describes their statistical properties. The fourth section illustrates the application of LQCs to the study of area crime structures and area crime careers in two Australian localities. The spatial concentration of crime is but one of many faces of regional diversity, and is the result of complex social and economic processes associated with the dynamics of community (urban) life. Regional variation in crime has been an active field of research over the last 70 years or so; it has resulted in two major lines of inquiry, one focusing on the study of the processes that drive differences in crime across geographical areas, and the other addressing the issue of how the crime careers of areas develop over time. We will refer to the first as the ‘communities-andcrime’ strand and to the second as the ‘area-crime-career’ strand. The term ‘regional’ as used in this paper refers to geographical areas of any type (ie communities, neighbourhoods, suburbs, local government authorities, etc). Research into the communities-and-crime strand has identified a number of factors that contribute to regional variation in crime. Land use, urbanisation, residential stability, socio-economic heterogeneity, relational networks, social control, and (social and economic) strain are central to most studies of regional differences in crime in the literature.2 Local variations in police activity or in crime recording practices,3 differences in community attitudes toward public safety,4 fluctuations in the business cycle, economic restructuring and associated adjustment processes5 are among other factors affecting the geographical distribution of crime.
Copyright © 2002 Perpetuity Press Ltd
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Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal
The area-crime-career strand has focused on how neighbourhoods evolve into high-crime areas. Neighbourhood det
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