Assessing the Influence of Prior on Subsequent Street Robbery Location Choices: A Case Study in ZG City, China

Dongping Long, Lin Liu, Jiaxin Feng, Suhong Zhou and Fengrui Jing
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Dongping Long: Center of Integrated Geographic Information Analysis, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Lin Liu: School of Geographical Science, Center of GeoInformatics for Public Security, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Jiaxin Feng: Center of Integrated Geographic Information Analysis, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Suhong Zhou: Center of Integrated Geographic Information Analysis, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Fengrui Jing: Center of Integrated Geographic Information Analysis, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: The literature shows that offenders’ subsequent crime location choices are affected by their prior crime location choices. However, the published studies have focused on the influence of time and place of a previous crime, without testing the impact of whether the offender was arrested during the act of the prior crime. On the basis of the literature, this study further examines the influence of the prior robbery experiences on the subsequent street robbery location choices, by testing explicit hypotheses on how the time, place, and being arrested in the act of previous robberies affect a robber’s subsequent decisions of where to commit robberies. The data set used in this study includes 1262 detected robberies committed by 527 street robbers from the ZG City Public Security Bureau in China. Results of a mixed logit model demonstrate that prior street robbery experiences have a strong effect on subsequent street robbery location choices. A shorter time interval and less possibility of being arrested in the act of a prior street robbery significantly increase the likelihood of a robber returning to the previous location. However, the impact of distance of journey to prior crime location is not statistically significant.

Keywords: street robbery; location choice; crime experiences; repeat offending; mixed logit model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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