Introduction to Special Issue: Spatial Approaches to Community and Place Violence

• Published date: 01 June 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016821997537
• Author: Grant Drawve,Jonathan Grubb
• Date: 01 June 2021
• Subject Matter: Introduction

Introduction

Introduction to Special Issue:

Spatial Approaches to

Community and

Place Violence

Jonathan Grubb

1

and Grant Drawve

2

Keywords

ecology and crime/spatial analysis, crime/delinquency theory, structural theories of crime causation,

crime/delinquency theory, violent behavior

There has been continual growth in the availability of address and neighborhood-level crime data

allowing for many spatial approaches to crime occurrence (see Hipp & Williams, 2020). Through

the availability of data and the development in analytical software for analyses, spatial approaches to

understanding crime occurrence have grown more complex. This special issue aims to advance

knowledge of the “where” characteristic of crime but through a more transparent lens of how. We

understand that data cannot always be shared given the nature of criminal justice related data but the

analytical steps taken can be (to an extent), allowing for future researchers to replicate the analytical

approach with their own data.

At some point, we have all come across a study, and thought, I would like to do what the author(s)

did here. This could become problematic and counterproductive to research advancement when the

analytical steps taken in a study are not transparent to the reader. We would argue there should be

greater emphasis put on detailed analytical steps used in a study, even if it leads to a shorter review of

literature, or abandoning all together (see Maddan, 2018). We understand the likelihood of the

disappearance of a literature review is slim; however, with limited pages within journal articles,

there needs to be a balancing act with analytical transparency in mind. The analytical side has often

been sidelined to links to open-source sites such as GitHub or personal websites/blogs where greater

details are available. While this is extremely beneficial, this also adds another hurdle for readers to

overcome.

The author(s) of the special issue studies were asked by us (Grubb & Drawve) to speak toward

transparency and a movement toward open/replicable approaches in their discussion after their

paper was accepted. To that, there are varying degrees of transparency in the articles of this special

issue. Data are only one aspect of any approach. The spatial approach used can also reduce the

1

Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA

2

Department of Sociology & Criminology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

Corresponding Author:

Jonathan Grubb, Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology, Georgia Southern University, 1360 Southern Drive,

Statesboro, GA 30460, USA.

Email: jgrubb@georgiasouthern.edu

Criminal Justice Review

2021, Vol. 46(2) 132-133

ª2021 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/0734016821997537

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