An Investigation of Metropolitan Crime Distribution

Abstract

Have you ever researched crime data for your neighborhood? There are a variety of websites that offer crime map filters that display the distribution of various crimes by location. The distribution of crimes by location is of importance to many. From the inquiry of a potential homeowner to the deployment of resources for law enforcement, the dispersion or spatial arrangement of crimes can provide insights into a community. Several factors such as the degree of urbanization, unemployment and other socioeconomic demographics may influence the distribution of crimes in a particular location. In the following discussion, we examine the distribution of crimes in the District of Columbia (DC). In particular, we evaluate whether the spatial arrangement of crimes in the third district of DC is random, uniformly dispersed or clustered. We will consider three methods that may be applied to study the allocation of crimes.