Neighborhood Structures and Crime: A Spatial Analysis

Neighborhood Structures and Crime: A Spatial Analysis
George Kikuchi
April 2010

ISBN-13:  978-1-59332-396-7 / Hardcover
Dimensions:  5.5 x 8.5 / xiv, 200 pages

Price   $65.00

Description

Thinking in spatial terms is essential in understanding crime and criminal behavior. By integrating newly developed statistical methods from interdisciplinary fields with social disorganization theory and routine activities theory, Kikuchi examines the spatial and temporal dynamics of crime at the neighborhood level. Statistical analyses consistently indicate that neighborhood characteristics are important predictors of the spatial distribution of crime, longitudinal trends of crime, and even criminal offenders’ target selection. Kikuchi endeavors to uncover the mechanism of how neighborhood characteristics produce crime-conducive environments. He advances the reader’s understanding of dynamic interactions between neighborhood structures and crime based on the empirical analysis of the spatial and temporal aspects of crime.

About the Author

George Kikuchi is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Criminology and Behavioral Sciences of the National Research Institute of Police Science, Japan. He earned his PhD in sociology from Purdue University in 2008. His research interests are a spatial-temporal analysis of crime. He also helps police departments in Japan conduct crime analysis and implement effective policing strategies.