Few studies have combined factors related to social disorganisation and factors related to opportunity theory at the microspatial level, with most studies aggregating to the block group or census tract. This study disaggregates block group census data in and around the vicinity of locations believed to encourage outdoor drug markets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A location quotient analysis finds that drug arrests cluster within a block or two of many suspected crime generators/attractors. Results from a zero-inflated Poisson model suggest some land use variables and factors associated with social disorganisation can help predict the location and size of drug markets; however, at the city level only retail alcohol outlets remained significant when combined with the social disorganisation-related variables, as a predictor of drug markets. The article discusses a number of potential reasons for these findings.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AndersonE. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. New York: W.W. Norton Company.
2.
AndresenM.A. (2006). Crime measures and the spatial analysis of criminal activity. British Journal of Criminology, 46(2), 258–285.
3.
BestD.RawafS.RowleyJ.FloydK.ManningV.StrangJ. (2000). Drinking and smoking as concurrent predictors of illicit drug use and positive drug attitudes in adolescents. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 60, 319–321.
4.
BrantinghamP.L.BrantinghamP.J. (1993). Environment, routine, and situation: Toward a pattern theory of crime. InClarkeR.V.FelsonM.(Eds.), Routine activity and rational choice (pp. 259–294). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
5.
BrantinghamP.L.BrantinghamP.J. (1995a). Criminality of place: Crime generators and crime attractors. European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research, 3(3), 5–26.
6.
BrantinghamP.L.BrantinghamP.J. (1995b). Location quotients and crime hot spots in the city. InBlockC.DabdoubM.FreglyS.(Eds.), Crime analysis through computer mapping (pp. 129–149). Washington DC: Police Executive Research Forum.
7.
BrantinghamP.J.BrantinghamP.L. (1991). Notes on the geometry of crime. InBrantinghamP.J.BrantinghamP.L.(Eds.), Environmental criminology (pp. 27–54). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
8.
BursikR. (1988). Social disorganization and theories of crime and delinquency: Problems and prospects. Criminology, 26, 519–522.
9.
ChaineyS.RatcliffeJ.H. (2005). GIS and crime mapping. London: John Wiley and Sons.
10.
ClarkeR.V.FelsonM. (1993). Introduction: Criminology, routine activity, and rational choice. InClarkeR.V.FelsonM.(Eds.), Routine activity and rational choice (pp. 259–294). New Brunswick: Transaction publishers.
11.
CohenL.E.FelsonM. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44, 588–608.
12.
DunlapE. (1992). Impact of drugs on family life and kin networks in inner-city African-American single parent households. InHarrellA.PetersonG.(Eds.), Drugs, crime, and social isolation: Barriers to urban opportunity (pp. 181–207). Washington DC: Urban Institute Press.
13.
EckJ. (1995). A general model of illicit retail marketplaces. InEckJ.WeisburdD.(Eds.), Crime and place (pp. 67–93). NY: Criminal Justice Press.
14.
FelsonM. (1998). Crime and everyday life: Impact and implications for society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
15.
ForsythA.R.HammersleyT.L.MurrayK. (1992). Geographical aspects of scoring illegal drugs. British Journal of Criminology, 32, 292–309.
16.
GelbergL.LinnL.LeakeB. (1988). Mental health, alcohol and drug use, and criminal history among homeless adults. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 191–196.
17.
GottfredsonD.C.McNeilR.GottfredsonG. (1991). Social area influences on delinquency: A multilevel analysis. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 28, 197–226.
18.
GriffithsE.ChavezJ.M. (2004). Communities, street guns and homicide trajectories in Chicago, 1980-1995: Merging methods for examining homicide trends across space and time. Criminology, 42(4), 941–978.
19.
GroffE.R.LaVigneN. (2001). Mapping an opportunity surface of residential burglary. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38(3), 257–278.
20.
GuerryA.M. (1833). Essai sur la statistique morale de la France: Precede d'un rapport a l'Academie de sciences. Paris: Chez Crochard.
21.
JefferyC.R.ZahmD.L. (1993). Crime prevention through environmental design, opportunity theory, and rational choice models. InClarkeR.V.FelsonM.(Eds.), Routine activity and rational choice (pp. 323–350). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
22.
KleimanM. (1991, November). Modeling drug markets. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, CA.
23.
MayhewH. (1862). London labour and the London poor. London: Griffin Bohn.
24.
OlligschlaegerA.M. (1997). Spatial analysis of crime using GIS-based data: Weighted spatial adaptive filtering and chaotic cellular forecasting with application to street level drug markets. Unpublished dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
25.
OpenshawS. (1984). The modifiable areal unit problem. Norwich, UK: Geo Books.
26.
QueteletA. (1842). A treatise on man and the development of his faculties. Edinburgh, UK: Chambers.
27.
RatcliffeJ.H. (2006). A temporal constraint theory to explain opportunity-based spatial offending patterns. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 43(3), 261–291.
28.
RengertG.F. (1996). The geography of illegal drugs. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
29.
RengertG.F.RatcliffeJ.H.ChakravortyS. (2005). Policing illegal drug markets: Geographic approaches to crime reduction. Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press.
30.
ReuterP. (2000). The measurement of local drug markets. Paper presented at the National Institute of Justice Conference on Drug Markets, Washington DC.
31.
RiceK.J.SmithW.R. (2002). Socioecological models of automotive theft: Integrating routine activity and social disorganization approaches. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 39(3), 304–336.
32.
RobinsonM.B. (1999). Lifestyles, routine activities, and residential burglary victimization. Journal of Crime and Justice, 22(1), 27–56.
33.
RoncekD.MaierP. (1991). Bars, blocks, and crime revisited: Linking the theory of routine activities to the empiricism of ‘hot spots’. Criminology, 29, 725–754.
34.
RoncekD.PravatinerM. (1989). Additional evidence that taverns enhance nearby crime. Sociology and Social Research, 73, 185–188.
35.
ShawC.R.McKayH.D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency in urban areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
36.
ShermanL.W.GartinP.R.BuergerM.E. (1989). Hotspots of predatory crime: Routine activities and the criminology of place, Criminology, 27, 27–55.
37.
SmithW.R.FrazeeS.G.DavisonE.L. (2000). Furthering the integration of routine activity and social disorganization theories: Small units of analysis and the study of street robbery as a diffusion process. Criminology, 38(2), 489–523.
38.
SnowD.BakerS.AndersonL. (1989). Criminality and homeless men: An empirical assessment. Social Problems, 36, 532–549.
39.
TitaG.CohenJ.EngbergJ. (2005). An ecological study of the location of gang ‘Set Space’. Social Problems, 52(2), 272–299.
40.
TitaG.GriffithsE. (2005). Travelling to violence: The case for a mobility-based spatial typology of homicide. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 42(3), 275–308.
41.
US Department of Health and Human Services (1993). National Household Survey of Drug Abuse: Main Findings 1991. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
42.
UnwinD.J. (1996). GIS, spatial analysis, and spatial statistics. Progress in Human Geography, 20, 540–551.
43.
WadsworthE.J.MossS.C.SimpsonS.A.SmithA.P. (2004). Factors associated with recreational drug use. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 18, 238–248.
44.
WarnerB.D.CoomerB.W. (2003). Neighbourhood drug arrests: Are they a meaningful indicator of drug activity? A research note. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 40, 123–138.
45.
WeatherburnD.LindB. (2006). What mediates the macro-level effects of economic and social stress on crime?Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 39(3), 384–397.
46.
WeisburdD.BushwayS.LumC.YangS. (2004). Trajectories of crime at places: A longitudinal study of street segments in the City of Seattle. Criminology, 42(2), 283–321.
