Extent literature on social disorganization theory posits that offenses occur in disadvantaged neighborhoods where informal social controls are less effective. Further, research into the spatial dynamics of crime and offender decision-making shows that offenders choose to offend in neighborhoods where risk of apprehension is low, such as those where informal social control is weakened. This study examines whether social disorganization, measured as concentrated disadvantage and residential mobility, within offenders’ home neighborhood influences residence-to-crime distance in St. Louis City, using data from a sample of felony firearm arrests from 07-2015 through 06-2018. Findings show that concentrated disadvantage significantly influences the distance of residence-to-crime. In addition, crime specific analyses indicate that this relationship is significant for instrumental, but not expressive crime types.
AckermanJ. M.RossmoD. K. (2015). How far to travel? A multilevel analysis of the residence-to-crime distance. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 31(2), 237–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-014-9232-7
2.
BarkerM. (2000). The criminal range of small-town burglars. In CanterD. V.AlisonL. J. (Eds.), Profiling property crimes (pp. 67–84). Routledge.
3.
BeckerG. S. (1968). Crime and punishment: An economic approach. Journal of Political Economy, 76(2), 169–217. https://doi.org/10.1086/259394
4.
BennettT.WrightR. (1984). Burglars on burglary: Prevention and the offender. Gower Publishing Company.
5.
BernascoW. (2006). Co-offending and the choice of target areas in burglary. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 3(3), 139–155. https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.49
6.
BernascoW. (2010). Modeling micro-level crime location choice: Application of the discrete choice framework to crime at places. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 26(1), 113–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-009-9086-6
BernascoW.LuykxF. (2003). Effects of attractiveness, opportunity and accessibility to burglars on residential burglary rates of urban neighborhoods. Criminology, 41(3), 981–1002. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb01011.x
9.
BernascoW.NieuwbeertaP. (2005). How do residential burglars select target areas? A new approach to the analysis of criminal location choice. The British Journal of Criminology, 45(3), 296–315. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azh070
10.
BoudonR. (1998). Limitations of rational choice theory. American Journal of Sociology, 104(3), 817–828. https://doi.org/10.1086/210087
11.
BrantinghamP. L.BrantinghamP. J. (1990). Situational crime prevention in practice. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 32(1), 17–40. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjcrim.32.1.17
12.
BrantinghamP. L.BrantinghamP. J. (1999). A theoretical model of crime hot spot generation. Studies on Crime & Crime Prevention, 8(1), 7–26.
13.
BrownB. B.AltmanI. (1983). Territoriality, defensible space and residential burglary: An environmental analysis. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3(3), 203–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(83)80001-2
BursikR. J.GrasmickH. G. (1993). Economic deprivation and neighborhood crime rates, 1960-1980. Law & Society Review, 27(2), 263. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.2307/3053937
16.
ChaineyS.AustinB.HollandF. (2001). London Borough of Harrow: Insights into the analysis and patterns of offender journeys to crime. InfoTech Enterprises Europe.
17.
ChamberlainA. W.BoggessL. N. (2016). Relative difference and burglary location: Can ecological characteristics of a burglar’s home neighborhood predict offense location?Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 53(6), 872–906. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427816647993
18.
ClarkeR.EckJ. (2003). Become a problem-solving crime analyst: In 55 small steps. Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science.
19.
ClearT. R.FrostN. A.CarrM.DhondtG.BragaA.WarfieldG. A. (2014). Predicting crime through incarceration: The impact of rates of prison cycling on rates of crime in communities (pp. 1–133). National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
20.
ClearT. R.RoseD. R.WaringE.ScullyK. (2003). Coercive mobility and crime: A preliminary examination of concentrated incarceration and social disorganization. Justice Quarterly, 20(1), 33–64.
21.
CornishD. B.ClarkeR. V. (1986). The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending. Springer Publishing Company.
22.
CornishD. B.ClarkeR. V. (1989). Crime specialisation, crime displacement and rational choice theory. In WegenerH.LöselF.HaischJ. (Eds.), Criminal Behavior and the Justice System (pp. 103–117). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
23.
CoupeT. (2017). Burglary decisions. In BernascoW.GelderJ.-L. V.ElffersH. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of offender decision making (pp. 655–683). Oxford University Press.
24.
CwickJ. M. (2022). Neighborhood social ties and informal social control: When do neighbors call the police or directly intervene?Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 23(2), 1–19.
25.
FarleyJ. E. (1987). Suburbanization and central-city crime rates: New evidence and a reinterpretation. American Journal of Sociology, 93(3), 688–700. https://doi.org/10.1086/228793
26.
FelsonR. B. (2013). What are violent offenders thinking? InLeClercB.WortleyR. (Eds.), Cognition and crime (pp. 12–25). Routledge.
GroffE.McEwenT. (2006). Exploring the spatial configuration of places related to homicide events. Institute for Law and Justice: National Institute of Justice.
29.
Hayslett-McCallK. L.QiuF.CurtinK. M.ChastainB.SchubertJ.CarverV. (2008). The simulation of the journey to residential burglary. In LiuL.EckJ. (Eds.), Artificial crime analysis systems: Using computer simulations and geographic information systems (pp. 281–299). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-591-7.ch014
LoughranT. A.PaternosterR.ChalfinA.WilsonT. (2016). Can rational choice be considered a general theory of crime? Evidence from individual-level panel data. Criminology, 54(1), 86–112. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12097
32.
LynchJ. P.SabolW. J.PlantyM.ShellyM. (2003). Crime, coercion and community: The effects of arrest and incarceration policies on informal social control in neighborhoods (pp. 1–38). National Criminal Justice Reference Service.
33.
MageeL. A. (2020). Community-level social processes and firearm shooting events: A multilevel analysis. Journal of Urban Health, 97, 296–305.
34.
MatsuedaR. L.KreagerD. A.HuizingaD. (2006). Deterring delinquents: A rational choice model of theft and violence. American Sociological Review, 71(1), 95–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240607100105
35.
MichaudP. (2023). Should we stay or should we go? A critical review of journey-to-crime research. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 38(4), 914–930. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-023-09618-x
36.
MorselliC.RoyerM.-N. (2008). Criminal mobility and criminal achievement. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 45(1), 4–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427807309630
37.
NaginD. S.PaternosterR. (1993). Enduring individual differences and rational choice theories of crime. Law & Society Review, 27(3), 467–496. https://doi.org/10.2307/3054102
NicholsW. W. (2019). Mental maps, social characteristics, and criminal mobility. In Georges-AbeyieD. E.HarriesK. D. (Eds.), Crime: A spatial perspective (pp. 156–166). Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/geor90788-016
40.
ParkR. E.BurgessE. W. (1924). Introduction to the science of sociology. University of Chicago Press.
41.
PattilloM. E. (1998). Sweet mothers and gangbangers: Managing crime in a black middle-class neighborhood. Social Forces, 76(3), 747–774.
RengertG. F.WasilchickJ. (1985). Suburban burglary: A time and a place for everything.ThomasCC.
47.
ReynaldD.AverdijkM.ElffersH.BernascoW. (2008). Do social barriers affect urban crime trips? The effects of ethnic and economic neighbourhood compositions on the flow of crime in the Hague, the Netherlands. Built Environment, 34(1), 21–31. https://doi.org/10.2148/benv.34.1.21
48.
RossmoD. K. (2000). Geographic profiling. CRC Press.
SampsonR. J.GrovesW. B. (1989). Community structure and crime: Testing social-disorganization theory. American Journal of Sociology, 94(4), 774–802. https://doi.org/10.1086/229068
51.
ShawC. R.McKayH. D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas (pp. xxxii, 451). University of Chicago Press.
52.
SnookB. (2004). Individual differences in distance travelled by serial burglars. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 1(1), 53–66. https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.3
53.
St. JeanP. K. B. (2008). Pockets of crime: Broken windows, collective efficacy, and the criminal point of view. University of Chicago Press.
54.
ThomasK. J.BaumerE. P.LoughranT. A. (2022). Structural predictors of choice: Testing a multilevel rational choice theory of crime. Criminology, 60(4), 606–636. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12314
55.
ThomasW. I.ZnanieckiF. (1919). The polish peasant in Europe and America: Monograph of an immigrant group. University of Chicago Press.
56.
TopalinJ. (1992). The journey to rape [Masters Thesis]. University of Surrey.
57.
Van KoppenP. J.JansenR. W. J. (1998). The road to the robbery: Travel patterns in commercial robberies. The British Journal of Criminology, 38(2), 230–246. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjc.a014233
58.
VandeviverC.Van DaeleS.Vander BekenT. (2015). What makes long crime trips worth undertaking? Balancing costs and benefits in burglars’ journey to crime. The British Journal of Criminology, 55(2), 399–420. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azu078
59.
WarnerB. D.BurchfieldK. (2011). Misperceived neighborhood values and informal social control. Justice Quarterly, 28(4), 606–630.
60.
WarrenP. Y.CochranJ.ShieldsR. T.FeldmeyerB.BaileyC.StewartE. A. (2020). Sentencing departures and female defendants: Assessing the effects of racial and ethnic threat. Crime & Delinquency, 66(1), 59–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128719839394
