Citation

Jones RW, Pridemore WA. J. Quant. Criminol. 2019; 35(3): 543-572.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10940-018-9397-6

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

OBJECTIVEsWe propose and test a multilevel theoretical model of crime concentration by combining criminal opportunity and social disorganization into a single hierarchical model. Our theoretical model simultaneously answers calls to integrate routine activities theory and social disorganization theory and provides a logical framework for understanding the connections between neighborhood context and micro-spatial environmental conditions.

METHODSTo test our theory we used multilevel negative binomial regression with controls for spatial dependence to estimate street segment level crime counts.

RESULTSFindings showed the expected direct effects on street segment-level violent and property crime of both micro- and neighborhood-level characteristics. Our results for cross-level interaction effects provided evidence neighborhood context moderates the association between street segment-level variables and crime. Model comparisons using likelihood ratio tests revealed that including neighborhood-level characteristics improved explanatory power relative to single level models.

CONCLUSIONSThis study lends support to a multilevel theory of the law of crime concentration that includes both neighborhood and street segment level conditions.

Language: en

Keywords

Law of crime concentration; Neighborhoods; Routine activities; Social disorganization; Street segments