Spatial Patterns in Residential Burglary

• Published date: 01 May 2002
• DOI: 10.1177/1043986202018002002
• Date: 01 May 2002
• Author: David Martin
• Subject Matter: Articles

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice / May 2002Martin / SPATIAL PATTERNS IN RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY

Spatial Patterns in Residential Burglary

Assessing the Effect of Neighborhood Social Capital

DAVID MARTIN

Wayne State University

In this study,the author tests the significance of several concepts as predictors of neighborhood

burglary rates using multivariateregression and spatial analysis techniques. The characteristics

theauthor investigates have been identified by studies on the social ecology of crime and by more

recent research evaluatingcommunity-oriented policing. He draws heavily from recent work by

Sampson, Raudenbush,and Earls as well as others who have advanced the social disorganization

theory of crime. This perspective views the presence of “community” as a keyfactor that helps

maintain order in neighborhoods, even in the presence of structural criminogenic conditions

such as concentrated poverty.

Community-oriented policing, as a policy solution to crime, has strong

linkages to several criminological theories. The social disorganization

theory,the rational choice theory, the routine activities theory,and the broken

windows theory represent a set of related theories offering explanations

about the factors responsible for variations in crime rates across neighbor-

hoods. Empirical research guided by social disorganization theory has

sought to explain variation in neighborhood crime rates using three concepts

measuring neighborhood context. These contextual variables include con-

centrated disadvantage (i.e., poverty), residential stability, and the level of

informal social control. Social disorganization theory provides a useful

framework for analyzing intracity patterns of crime given its emphasis on

neighborhood contextual effects. Contextualeffects are defined as character-

istics of neighborhoods that result from the social interaction among resi-

dents within their particular environment(Huckfeldt & Sprague, 1993). Con-

textual effects include factors such as the spatial concentration of structural

132

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice,Vol. 18 No. 2, May 2002 132-146

© 2002 Sage Publications