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Neighbourhood Composition and Crime 'Hot Spots': Preliminary Results From the Merseyside Crime and Disadvantage Study

NCJ Number
162905
Journal
Focus on Police Research and Development Issue: 7 Dated: (March 1996) Pages: 38-41
Author(s)
A Hirschfield; P Brown; K Bowers
Date Published
1996
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council is examining relationships between crime and socioeconomic conditions in Merseyside, England and is now nearly half complete.
Abstract
The central issues being examined include relationships between crime and the geographical segregation of low-income people, the extent to which crime risks are greater where low-income areas border affluent areas, and the extent to which crime in disadvantaged areas is due to a lack of social cohesion. Merseyside is one of the most disadvantaged urban regions in the European Union and has a wide range of spatially referenced data sets. The researchers are using computer software specifically designed for analyzing geographical data and identifying patterns in crime data or crime hot spots. The results to date have revealed that the hot spots related to domestic burglary have occurred almost exclusively in the disadvantaged areas, although some hot spots occurred in border regions between affluent and low- income areas. The remainder of the research will involve analyzing data for other types of crime and for time or day and date and to examine information on recorded crime and offenders. Figures