Abstract
Criminology theories imply that time is a relevant variable, especially for the prevention and intervention of criminal occurrences. Thus, the study of criminal temporal patterns has been described as being of great relevance. The present study focuses on describing and exploring the influence of temporal and seasonal variables on the occurrence of different types of theft in the Historic Centre of Porto through the analysis of official records of the Public Security Police. Significant differences were found regarding the time of day and season of occurrence, even though it is not observed for all the types of theft analysed. Overall, theft was more prevalent at night and less frequent during winter, which is congruent with previous literature and the routine activity theory. Being the first case study in Porto city, Portugal, this research may be of extreme importance for both designing prevention and intervention policies in the area, and for inspiring future research on a criminal time analysis.
Highlights
A population’s migration to urban areas is triggered by people’s desire to search for a better standard of living; the growth of urban population has undesirable outcomes (Oliveira et al 2020)
Pairwise comparisons showed a significant difference between summer and all the other seasons, as the number of thefts during that period is significantly higher
The time analysis of crime has been recognized as an important strategy to prevent and intervene in criminal occurrences
Summary
A population’s migration to urban areas is triggered by people’s desire to search for a better standard of living; the growth of urban population has undesirable outcomes (Oliveira et al 2020). In conjunction with the absence of an adequate infrastructure, the increase in population disturbs citizens’ public health and well-being, in addition to social and economic disparities, and sustainability issues, for instance overpopulation, traffic flow, pollution, frenetic everyday life, poverty, enlarged cost of living, and lastly, crime (Cozens 2007; Nunes et al 2017; Maia and Estrada 2017; Sani and Nunes 2016). There are changes in the immediate environment that can either encourage or inhibit crime occurrences (e.g., hours of daylight, meteorological conditions) that force individuals to adapt their daily activities (Cohen and Felson 1979). These variables influence human behaviour, being this the groundwork for the research of seasonality and climate’s impact on crime
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