Richard Block

Robberies in Chicago: A Block-Level Analysis of the Influence of Crime Generators, Crime Attractors, and Offender Anchor Points

The effects of crime generators, crime attractors, and offender anchor points on the distribution of street robberies across the nearly 25,000 census blocks of Chicago are examined. The analysis includes a wide array of activities and facilities that are expected to attract criminals and generate crime. These include a variety of legal and illegal businesses and infrastructural accessibility facilitators. In addition to these crime attractors and generators, the role of the presence of motivated offenders’ anchor points, as measured by offenders’ residence and gang activity, is assessed. The analysis also includes crime attractors, crime generators, and offender anchor points in adjacent census blocks. The findings demonstrate the strength of the effects of crime generators and attractors and offender anchor points on the frequency of street robbery at the census block level.

Resistance and nonfatal outcomes in stranger-to-stranger predatory crime

This article examines the consequences of encounters between strangers that might have resulted in robbery or rape and explores how the eventual outcomes of those incidents were related to the resistance offered by their potential victims. It is based on data from the National Crime Survey. Although the conclusions necessarily are tentative, it appears that forceful resistance was related to less frequent success by robbers, but robbery victims resisting forcefully had a greater risk of being physically attacked. Forceful resistance in potential rape incidents was related to higher risk of attack and bodily injury with no apparent reduction in risk of rape. On the other hand, victims who were able to offer nonforceful resistance reported a reduced risk of being robbed and suffered less frequent attack and injury. In rape incidents, nonforceful resistance was linked to lower risk of actual rape but was unrelated to risk of attack or other forms of injury.

Fear of Crime and Fear of the Police

Based on a nationwide random sample survey, the relationship among fear of crime, fear of the police, support for the police, and support for civil liberties is examined. It is found, contrary to expectations, that fear of crime is only weakly related to either support for the police or protection from them. Fear of the police, however, is strongly related to both.

Victim-Offender Dynamics in Violent Crime

A long held axiom of criminology is that in most societies crime prevention is primarily the responsibility of the citizenry and not the police. The study of victim-offender dynamics in violent crime is research of events which result either from a failure to prevent crime or a willingness to precipitate or participate in a criminal event. When prevention has failed, the decision to resist and the method of defense become important determinants of both the decision to invoke the criminal justice process and the criminal processing systems decisions to react to the crime. Thus, the perspective of the victim is probably more important for understanding the violent criminal event than either that of the police or courts. The major responsibility for crime prevention has historically been with the community and citizen, not with the crime processing system. If the study of victims of crime is to have a major effect on rates of crime, it may come through the enhancement of the ability of citizens to prevent crime and react to criminal events in a way which minimizes the resultant damage and injury to the victim.

Associations of adult physical activity with perceived safety and police-recorded crime: the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

BackgroundDue to the inconsistent findings of prior studies, we explored the association of perceived safety and police-recorded crime measures with physical activity.MethodsThe study included 818 Chicago participants of the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis 45 to 84 years of age. Questionnaire-assessed physical activity included a) transport walking; b) leisure walking; and c) non-walking leisure activities. Perceived safety was assessed through an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Police-recorded crime was assessed through 2-year counts of selected crimes (total and outdoor incivilities, criminal offenses, homicides) per 1000 population. Associations were examined using generalized estimating equation logistic regression models.ResultsPerceiving a safer neighborhood was positively associated with transport walking and perceiving lower violence was associated with leisure walking. Those in the lowest tertile of total or outdoor incivilities were more likely to report transport walking. Models with both perceived safety and police-recorded measures of crime as independent variables had superior fit for both transport walking and leisure walking outcomes. Neither perceived safety nor police-recorded measures of crime were associated with non-walking leisure activity.ConclusionsPerceived and police-recorded measures had independent associations with walking and both should be considered in assessing the impact of neighborhood crime on physical activity.

Homicide in Chicago, 1965-1970

Rates of criminal homicide have been increasing in many ma jor metropolitan areas. In Chicago from 1965 to 1970; the rate of homicides noted by the police more than doubled. A study of Patterns of homicide during that period reveals that robbey -killings, killings involving younger victims and offenders, group- related killings, and gun killings all increased far more substan tially than aggregate homicide rates. Homicide offense rates for black males aged 15-24 almost tripled during the six years, while victimization among the same group more than tripled. The dramatic increase in robbery killings appeared to be but one manifestation of a broader increase in young, group-related, gun homicides.

Neighborhood Environment and Adherence to a Walking Intervention in African American Women

This secondary analysis examined relationships between the environment and adherence to a walking intervention among 252 urban and suburban, midlife African American women. Participants received an enhanced or minimal behavioral intervention. Walking adherence was measured as the percentage of prescribed walks completed. Objective measures of the womens neighborhoods included walkability (land use mix, street intersection density, housing unit density, public transit stop density), aesthetics (physical deterioration, industrial land use), availability of outdoor (recreational open space) and indoor (recreation centers, shopping malls) walking facilities/spaces, and safety (violent crime incidents). Ordinary least squares regression estimated relationships. The presence of one and especially both types of indoor walking facilities were associated with greater adherence. No associations were found between adherence and other environmental variables. The effect of the enhanced intervention on adherence did not differ by environmental characteristics. Aspects of the environment may influence African American women who want to be more active.

BEGINNING WITH WOLFGANG: AN AGENDA FOR HOMICIDE RESEARCH

ABSTRACT In his study of homicide patterns in Philadelphia from 1948 to 1952, Marvin Wolfgang pioneered description as a tool in theory-building, using systematic observation to check the validity of conventional wisdom against stark reality. 7% paper reviews two influential but controversial concepts that grew out of that research - victim precipitation and the subculture of violence. It begins with an overview of the theoretical, definitional and methodological difficulties that have limited the impact of victim precipitation and the subculture of violence on homicide research, pointing out the valuable aspects of the concepts for explaining differential patterns of serious and lethal violence. It then considers how these aspects might be developed into a more general theory, which would avoid some of the difficulties of the original concepts. Finally, the paper suggests ways in which coordination of theory and methodology within projects and between researchers might aid in the development of models of...

Gang Activity and Overall Levels of Crime: A New Mapping Tool for Defining Areas of Gang Activity Using Police Records

In this note, a new method for defining gang activity areas based uponpolice records is illustrated using the Chicago Police Departments1996 incident files. This method is based upon standard geographictechniques and uses a uniform grid that divides the city into 150-msquares. It is shown that this technique may be useful both in describinggang activity areas and in describing the spatial distribution of crime inlarge cities. A strong relationship is found between the number of gangsthat are active in an area and the general level of criminal activity.

Bayesian Journey-to-Crime Estimation: An Improvement in Geographic Profiling Methodology

A Bayesian approach to geographic profiling methodology involves updating journey-to-crime probability estimates with probabilities based on the distribution of residences of other offenders who committed crimes in the same locations. Tests were conducted on serial offenders from Baltimore County and Chicago and six different methods using five different criteria were compared. The Bayesian method was more accurate than the existing journey-to-crime methods and was as accurate as the center of minimum distance, the current best method. Suggestions for improving the methodology further are provided.