The Influence, Saliency, and Consistency of Environmental Crime Predictors: A Probability Score Matching Approach to Test What Makes a Hot Spot Hot

Abstract Environmental criminological research includes several perspectives that explain how characteristics of the environment can lead to crime. This study simultaneously integrated these different perspectives, including crime generators and attractors and environmental disorder indicators, to determine the most influential, salient, and consistent predictors of micro-level crime hot spots in Indianapolis, Indiana. Hot spot and control units were compared based on the presence of spatially joined crime generators and attractors and environmental disorder indicators recorded via remote systematic social observation using Google Street View. The results indicate that crime generators and attractors tend to vary in significance, influence, saliency, and consistency across crime types. Alternatively, the presence of decay in hot spots may be the most prominent and stable environmental feature. Environmental criminology has placed an increased focus on crime generators and attractors, though, it may be time to assess the theoretical and practical importance of other criminogenic environmental elements like decay.