Innovative Data in Communities and Crime Research: An Example at the Intersection of Racial Segregation, Neighborhood Permeability, and Crime

Shaun Thomas,Casey Harris,Jyotishka Datta,Grant Drawve,Hannah Steinman

doi:10.21428/cb6ab371.57a743d3

Abstract

Amidst the proliferation of community- and place-based, several innovative measurement tools have become more readily available for criminological and criminal justice researchers. The current study illustrates the utility of two novel data sources â Google transportation data and municipal infrastructure files â as a means of extending studies focused on racial and ethnic segregationâs effect on crime to include critical insights from environmental criminology regarding neighborhood boundary permeability. In doing so, we utilize data from over 120 block groups in Little Rock, Arkansas that include measures of Black isolation and boundary permeability: walk times to adjacent neighborhoods and thru streets captured in city infrastructure files. Our findings reveal that both segregation and neighborhood boundary permeability affect crime independently and net of key structural and spatial covariates, but that boundary permeability conditions the effect of segregation on crime. We conclude by discussing how the integration of newer and under-utilized measurement tools advances long-standing research on segregation and crime by operationalizing key theoretical concepts that have remained difficult to include using more standard secondary databasesÂ

Highlights

The fields of criminology and criminal justice continue rely heavily on secondary sources of data for measuring crime and the substantive and theoretical mechanisms thought to impact it (Nelson, Wooditch, and Gabbidon 2014; Woodward, Webb, Griffen, and Copes 2016)
We focus on two emerging measurements and their data sources: walk times to adjacent neighborhoods measured using Google Maps and neighborhood boundary thru streets captured by municipal infrastructure files
The current study seeks to connect these two literatures while demonstrating the utility of innovative measurement tools by exploring how segregation and the ease of movement into and out of neighborhoods each relate to crime, as well as how boundary permeability might differ in its association with crime depending on the degree of Black residential isolation

Summary

Introduction

The fields of criminology and criminal justice continue rely heavily on secondary sources of data for measuring crime and the substantive and theoretical mechanisms thought to impact it (Nelson, Wooditch, and Gabbidon 2014; Woodward, Webb, Griffen, and Copes 2016).

Results

Conclusion