Abstract
BackgroundPolice-reported crime data (hereafter “crime”) is routinely used as a psychosocial stressor in public health research, yet few studies have jointly examined (a) differences in crime exposure based on participant race and ethnicity, (b) differences in measures of crime exposure, and (c) considerations for how exposure to police is captured in police-recorded crime data. We estimate neighborhood exposure to crime and discuss the implications of structural differences in exposure to crime and police based on race and ethnicity.MethodsUsing GPS coordinates from 1188 participants in the Newborn Epigenetics Study, we estimated gestational exposure to crime provided by the Durham, North Carolina, Police Department within (a) 800 m and (b) the Census block group of residence. We controlled for non-overlapping spatial boundaries in crime, Census, residential, and police data to report crime spatial (crime per km2) and population (crime per 1000 people per km2) density.ResultsWe demonstrate dramatic disparities in exposure to crime based on participant race and ethnicity and highlight variability in these disparities based on the type of crime and crime measurement method chosen.ConclusionsPublic health researchers should give thoughtful consideration when using police-reported crime data to measure and model exposure to crime in the United States, as police-reported data encompasses joint exposure to police and crime in the neighborhood setting.
Highlights
Police-reported crime data is routinely used as a psychosocial stressor in public health research, yet few studies have jointly examined (a) differences in crime exposure based on participant race and ethnicity, (b) differences in measures of crime exposure, and (c) considerations for how exposure to police is captured in police-recorded crime data
In this study, we summarize four potential measurements of neighborhood police-reported crime exposure using geocoded crime data, drawing attention to large disparities in crime exposure based on race and ethnicity and highlighting important considerations associated with seasonal and spatial variation in reported crime levels
As has been done before, researchers may choose to compare these approaches head-tohead [3]. We provide these hypothetical examples to encourage public health researchers to critically engage with police-reported crime data, acknowledge how different crime density metrics may be more or less fit for particular models of crime exposure, and evaluate distinct mechanisms of effect for distinct types of crime
Summary
Police-reported crime data (hereafter “crime”) is routinely used as a psychosocial stressor in public health research, yet few studies have jointly examined (a) differences in crime exposure based on participant race and ethnicity, (b) differences in measures of crime exposure, and (c) considerations for how exposure to police is captured in police-recorded crime data. Police-reported crime measures (hereafter referred to as “crime”) are often aggregated within the Census tract (average population of 2500–8000) [1, 9], Census block group (average population of 600–3000) [2, 5], or other local neighborhood or community area of residence to generate crime counts and rates for public health research [4]. We acknowledge examples of crime data analysis at the zip code, metropolitan-statistical area, state, and other levels in the literature [21,22,23], but we focus here on the use of reported crime for local cohort studies in the public health literature
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