Individual and neighborhood factors in residence-to-crime distances for property, drug, and violent offenses

Purpose

Individual and neighborhood level effects on distances separating offenders' residences from their crime locations were compared across property, personal, and drug crimes as well as all offenses combined.

Methods

Police and court data for 2529 felony arrestees referred to a County Prosecutor's Office in the northern mid-west were examined. Multilevel generalized least squares models were estimated with offenders nested within block groups.

Results

Residence/crime distances were generally shorter for rape, assault, and homicide relative to burglary, breaking and entering, theft, and robbery. Concentrated economic disadvantage was inversely related to distances for all crimes combined, and for drug crimes and assaults specifically. Significant individual level effects on distances for specific offenses included race (robbery, drugs, assault), prior arrests (theft), offense seriousness (thefts and drug crimes), and victim-related factors (robberies and assaults), but not always in expected directions.

Conclusions

Relative to offender demographics (age, sex, race), incorporating more proximate hypothesized effects on residence/crime distances in related studies (criminal priors, offense severity, acting alone versus in a group, neighborhood SES, etc.) will be useful for informing crime prevention strategies. More proximate effects on these distances might partially or fully mediate demographic effects.