Identifying spatio‐temporal patterns of articulated criminal offending: An application using phenomenologically meaningful police jurisdictional geographies

Abstract

AbstractImproving our understanding of the differentials, articulation and mobility of criminal offending within and between urban and rural areas may ultimately have important policy implications for the allocation of valuable federal, state and local resources. This paper introduces a new comprehensive place level system delineation, which corresponds directly to meaningful police jurisdictional coverage areas. This coverage allows for the implementation of a multivariate spatial econometric technique that has the potential to contribute to law enforcement's ability to combat criminal offending through the introduction of an algorithm for the tracking of the almost ‘real time’ spatial mobility of crime. The results suggest a more robust application of spatial clustering statistics in identifying spatio‐temporal relationships in the spatial mobility of crime. It is expected that the ability to track criminal offending in a more ‘real‐time’ manner can have direct implications on future research concerned with the simulation of crime‐specific offending patterns. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.