Changing crime concentrations in neighbourhoods in City of Glasgow

Existing international research has found that crime ‘typically’ concentrates and persists at a small number of micro-locations and, in so doing, has supported the development of effective and efficient place-based policing initiatives. This research set out to question whether, in an era of falling crime, the spatial scale and urban patterning of crime density has remained stable or exhibited change. It separately considers violent and property crime.

This work deploys Lorenz Curves and Gin Coefficients, the Spatial Point Pattern test and Local Moran’s I to interrogate a longitudinal police recorded crime data set for the City of Glasgow in Scotland. Moreover, the research uses both micro and meso-spatial reference units, the latter developed to comprise geographically distinct yet homogenous socio-economic population groupings. We argue that there is evidence of both continuity and change in crime density under the crime drop and that this occurs across different crime types and at differing spatial scales. Ultimately, we consider the implications of these findings for the development of policing interventions in an era of austerity.

For further information see:
Bannister, J., Bates, E. and Kearns, A. (forthcoming) The spatial scale and urban patterning of crime density under the crime drop.

Livingston, M., Galster, G., Kearns, A. and Bannister, J. (2014) Criminal neighbourhoods: Does the density of prior offenders in an area encourage others to commit crime? Environment and Planning A, 46: 2469-2488. DOI: 10.1068/a140180p

Livingston, M., Kearns, A. and Bannister, J. (2014) Neighbourhood structures and crime: the influence of tenure mix and other structural factors upon crime rates. Housing Studies, 29(1): 1-25. DOI:10.1080/02673037.2014.848267