Martin A Andresen

Simon Fraser University · School of Criminology

Our paper reports on a systematic review of crime concentration studies over the last 35 years. We identify 47 papers that report on crime concentrations at a micro geographic unit of analysis. These papers produced 49 estimates of general crime concentration for crime incidents at streets segments for a specific cumulative proportion of crime. The...

As climate change produces more extreme weather, it is increasingly important to understand the impacts of these changes on social behaviour. The relationship between weather and crime has been studied across numerous contexts. However, few studies examine the correlation between weather and violence in southern, non-temperate climates. In addition...

As climate change produces more extreme weather, it is increasingly important to understand the impacts of these changes on social behaviour. The relationship between weather and crime has been studied across numerous contexts. However, few studies examine the correlation between weather and violence in southern, non-temperate climates. In addition...

Criminological theories and widespread assumptions about crime suggest that the modus operandi involved in sexual crimes should have changed over time given various contextual changes, such as better criminological knowledge (e.g., forensic awareness) as well as improved investigative techniques (e.g., forensic evidence analysis). The aim of this s...

Theoretical relationships with crime across cities are explicitly or implicitly assumed to be the same in all places: a one-unit change in X leads to a β change in Y. But why would we assume the impact of unemployment, for example, is the same in wealthy and impoverished neighborhoods? We use a local statistical technique, geographically weighted r...

Theoretical relationships with crime across cities are explicitly or implicitly assumed to be the same in all places: a one-unit change in X leads to a β change in Y. But why would we assume the impact of unemployment, for example, is the same in wealthy and impoverished neighborhoods? We use a local statistical technique, geographically weighted r...

I have just published a new eBook: Statistics for the social sciences. This book is available on Amazon/Kindle for $14.99 USD. This book is written for an undergraduate course on statistics in the social sciences (quantitative research methods in the social sciences) and covers material from data, sampling, visualization, descriptive statistics, te...

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on crime in Canada and internationally. However, less is known about the impact of the pandemic on police-reported mental-health-related incidents. We explore three types of mental-health-related incidents (suicide and suicide attempts, Mental Health Act apprehensions, and mental health [other]) agains...

The security hypothesis posits that the international crime drop can be attributed to, in large part, improvements in security technology. However, in recent years, certain types of property crime are increasing. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that offenders are adapting to increased security in vehicles through burglarizing residences to st...

Objectives To test for statistically significant change in crime rates across neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Canada, resulting from social restrictions within the natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Differential local Moran’s I is used to identify statistically significant change in crime patterns across Vancouver’s neighbourhoods b...

Objectives To test for statistically significant changes in crime rates across neighbourhoods in Saskatoon, Canada resulting from social restrictions within the natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A spatial point pattern test is used to identify statistically significant change in crime patterns across Saskatoon's neighbourhoods b...

As a crime rate denominator, the ambient population has seen very limited use in a multivariate context. The current study employs a new measure of this population, constructed using cell tower location data from OpenCellID, to compare residential and ambient population-based crime rates. The chosen study area is Vancouver, BC, but the conclusions...

Social disorganization theory and the routine activities approach have been extensively applied separately as theoretical frameworks for the spatial analysis of crime, with general support. As hypothetical explanations for complex social phenomena, criminological theories can impact how studies are framed and how the crime problem is approached. Th...

We evaluate the relationships between immigration and crime at the census tract level. Using multiple measures of immigration considering nuances of the immigrant population and a statistical technique allowing for the identification of long- and short-run effects, we provide further evidence of the negative relationship between immigration and cri...

The modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) is an issue with spatial data and spatial analysis. The MAUP emerges because individual-level data are aggregated into other spatial units that are arbitrarily defined, with results changing depending on the type of spatial unit under analysis. The most common form of such aggregations is with individuals ag...

The R Project for Statistical Computing provides a software environment that is freeware for statistical computing and graphics. R and all of its libraries, or packages, allow its users to undertake many statistical techniques that include data handling and manipulation, classical statistical tests/analyses, Bayesian analyses, data reduction techni...

Research has shown that crime is concentrated at a small number of micro-places. This research has found that these spatial patterns are generalisable across different urban settings and are relatively stable over time. Despite this, little is known about the explanatory factors of crime at the micro-spatial scale. Using police incident data and la...

Cities promote the distribution of more and better greenspaces across their urbanized areas. These spaces are not, however, well received in all quarters, and a particular category of greenspace, the public park, is often lamented for its relationship with crime.his has been found true of parks, but little has been done to disaggregate the impact o...

Some urban spaces are associated with disproportionate numbers of criminal events, while other areas are relatively free from disorder and crime. The relationship between urban space and crime concentration has received increased attention in recent years, with the location quotient frequently presented as a tool to identify and quantify such conce...

Environmental criminology, and spatial-temporal criminology more generally, has the potential to contribute to the understanding of victimization. After reviewing the principle theoretical components of environmental criminology, we outline how environmental criminology has contributed to the understanding of victimization, where it has failed, and...

Despite environmental criminologists emphasizing the role that both space and time play in the occurrence of crime, there is still only a small literature on the temporal rhythms of criminal behavior, especially those of sexual violence. Drawing from routine activities theory, this research uses circular statistics to investigate the temporal patte...

The Cantor and Land model of unemployment and crime separates the effects of long- and short-run unemployment. In the long run, increases in unemployment are expected to increase crime, whereas the same increases are expected to decrease crime in the short run. This model has been tested for decades, generally supporting these predictions. In this...

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected social life. In efforts to reduce the spread of the virus, countries around the world implemented social restrictions, including social distancing, working from home, and the shutter-ing of numerous businesses. These social restrictions have also affected crime rates. In this study, we investigate the...

We empirically evaluate the distribution of spatial patterns at the census tract (CT) level for various immigration and property crime measures in Vancouver, British Columbia, 2003 and 2016, using a spatial point pattern test that identifies significant similarities, or otherwise, in the spatial patterns of (a) multiple measures of immigration, (b)...

We empirically test for spatial heterogeneity or local effects of multiple immigration measures on various property crime classification across Vancouver census tracts, 2016. Using spatially referenced property crime data and census data, we use geographically weighted regression to investigate the neighbourhood-level effects of immigration on crim...

Objectives: To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the frequency of various crime types (property, violent, and mischief) in Vancouver, Canada Methods: Crime data representing residential burglary, commercial burglary, theft of vehicle, theft from vehicle, theft, violence, and mischief are analysed at the city level using interrupte...

We investigate ransom kidnapping in El Salvador, 2000–2005, considering the geospatial patterns of abduction, captivity, and release sites. Both captivity and release sites tend to be at similar distances from abduction locations, and these distances were, on average, longer than the distance between the places where the victims were held captive a...

There are more displaced persons worldwide today than there ever has been before. Many countries, despite the urgent need for collective effort in providing for these persons, have been slow to accommodate them. Applicants continue to face stringent legal and practical barriers to asylum, even in countries party to the various international refugee...

The analysis of geographically referenced data, specifically point data, is predicated on the accurate geocoding of those data. Geocoding refers to the process in which geographically referenced data (addresses, for example) are placed on a map. This process may lead to issues with positional accuracy or the inability to geocode an address. In this...

The complex relationship between crime and economic change has had a long pedigree in criminological research. This article considers the temporal stability of the Cantor and Land model of unemployment and crime using a decomposition model of Canadian provinces, 1981 to 2009. We include multiple economic measures for a more comprehensive representa...

Crime reduction strategies are often faced with the criticism of crime displacement. Conversely, criminologists find that reductions in crime in one area have a ‘diffusion of benefits’ to surrounding areas. However, these findings are limited due to a lack of extensive longitudinal data and qualitative data that provide context. We examine a natura...

Purpose To examine individual perceptions of the consequences of crime, the role of criminogenic models, and whether rational choice and criminal social capital are informative of desistance during emerging adulthood. Methods Data from the Incarcerated Serious and Violent Young Offender Study were used to examine the relationship between different...

Background A key issue in the analysis of many spatial processes is the choice of an appropriate scale for the analysis. Smaller geographical units are generally preferable for the study of human phenomena because they are less likely to cause heterogeneous groups to be conflated. However, it can be harder to obtain data for small units and small-n...

Mental health–related calls for service are increasing across Canadian communities. However, the spatial dynamics of these calls for service and their potential relationship with concentrations of crime has not been fully investigated in the Canadian context. The current study examines mental health and other calls for service in a medium-sized (ap...

Objectives: To investigate spatial pattern data signatures in residential burglary resulting from the crime drop. Methods: Geo-referenced crime data, 2003–2016, representing residential burglary are analyzed considering crime concentrations at the street segment level as well as through the use of a nonparametric spatial point pattern test that ide...

A foot patrol program was implemented in Lower Lonsdale, British Columbia, in the summer of 2010 and continues today. As a part of assessing the foot patrol’s effect on crime in the neighbourhood, the spatial similarity was examined by comparing the crime pattern before the foot patrol initiative (2007-2009) with the crime pattern during the foot p...

Place-based research in criminology considers the micro-place (street segments, for example) as the unit of analysis. Though research considering criminal events, or police calls for service, occurring at the micro-place has a long history, the contemporary "crime and place" literature that considers citywide analyses of criminal events or police c...

Abstract On 15 September 2015, the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia (BC) implemented a set of by-law and security policy changes in an effort to reduce robberies and burglaries in BC pharmacies. Prior to these by-law and security policy changes, pharmacy robberies were increasing in BC for approximately 5 years. After implementation, phar...

Research on the spatial dimension of crime has developed significantly over the past few decades. An important aspect of this research is the visualization of this dimension and its underlying risk across space. However, most methods of such visualization, and subsequent analyses, only consider crime data or, perhaps, a population at risk in a crim...

Over the past two decades, research has consistently shown that criminal activity concentrates at places. Places also exhibit specialization in criminal activity, largely based on criminal opportunities. However, recent research has also shown that criminal events are only a relatively small fraction of calls for police service, generally 20–30%. T...

Recent research has shown that crime-related police calls for service account for 20–30% of police call-related activity. In this article, we analyse temporal patterns of calls for police service relating to mental health. Approximately, 22,000 mental health-related calls are analysed. Seasonal, monthly, and daily patterns are analysed using ANOVA...

Andresen's spatial point pattern test (SPPT) compares two spatial point patterns on defined areal units; it identifies areas where the spatial point patterns diverge and aggregates these local (dis)similarities to one global measure. We discuss the limitations of the SPPT and provide two alternative methods to calculate differences in the point pat...

Much research exists to demonstrate that strategies related to situational crime prevention are important for reducing opportunities for crime. Despite evidence for these strategies, many municipalities and developers do not implement them consistently or appropriately. The current study explores the impact of disregarding such research in a housin...

The use of social media data for the spatial analysis of crime patterns during social events has proven to be instructive. This study analyzes the geography of crime considering hockey game days, criminal behaviour, and Twitter activity. Specifically, we consider the relationship between geolocated crime-related Twitter activity and crime. We analy...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of a police foot patrol considering micro-geographic units of analysis. Design/methodology/approach Six years of monthly crime counts for eight violent and property crime types are analyzed. Negative binomial and binary logistic regressions were used to evaluate the impact of the polic...

Criminological research has consistently found that crime clusters in both space and time. A subset of this research has investigated repeat victimization (same victim re-victimized within a short period of time) and near-repeat victimization (places near the original victimization are at risk of victimization within a short period of time). Genera...

In contrast to the Canadian crime drop of the 1990s, homicide appeared as an anomaly with a peak in the 1970s. Yet previous studies tend to refer only to completed homicides, and here we also include attempts. The resulting trend is remarkably similar to that in Canadian property crime for five decades, including the period of the crime drop. This...

The devastating Canterbury Earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 left an indelible mark on the city of Christchurch. The social and economic upheaval that immediately followed the Earthquakes has, in time, been replaced with a period of rebuild and transformation. In this study we investigate the effects that the Canterbury Earthquakes had on two important...

Purpose Investigating the day of week and hour of day temporal patterns of crime typically show that (late) nights and weekends are the prime time for criminal activity. Though instructive, mental-health-related calls for service are a significant component of police service to the community that have not been a part of this research. The purpose o...

Mental illness is a condition that imposes costs on many aspects of our society, including policing. Often on the front line helping people in mental health crisis, because of their nature and the regulations involved, mental health related calls for police service impose a significant cost on policing. However, because of the relatively new identi...

Recent research in the economics of policing has been concerned with what the police do and how much time they spend on those activities. Some of this research has highlighted that, based on the number of incidents, “crime” comprises only ∼ 20% of the police workload with much of the remaining 80% addressing public safety concerns. In this article,...

The current study investigates gender differences in the spatial distribution of the British Columbia Mental Health Act (MHA), criminal and non-criminal police calls-for-service involving emotionally disturbed persons (EDP). Using a sample of 4341 police incidents over a three-year period, 13 pairwise spatial comparisons of similarity were complete...

Objectives Investigate the spatial concentrations and the stability of trajectories for disaggregated crime types on street segments and intersections in Vancouver, Canada. Methods A longitudinal analysis of 16 years of crime data using street segments and intersections as the units of analysis. We use the k-means non-parametric cluster analysis te...

Purpose To investigate the importance of multiple measures of the economy when investigates the role of the economy with crime, as well as the sensitivity of those results. Design/methodology/approach Provincial level data, 1981 – 2009, and a series of statistical specifications. Findings We find overall support for the Cantor and Land (1985)...

Objectives Investigate the spatial concentrations and spatial stability of criminal event data at the micro-spatial unit of analysis in Vancouver, British Columbia. Methods Geo-referenced crime data, 2003–2013, representing four property crime types (commercial burglary, mischief, theft from vehicle, theft of vehicle) are analyzed considering crime...

Temporal and spatial patterns of crime in Campinas, Brazil, are analyzed considering the relevance of routine activity theory in a Latin American context. We use geo-referenced criminal event data, 2010-2013, analyzing spatial patterns using census tracts and temporal patterns considering seasons, months, days, and hours. Our analyses include diffe...