Crime on the edges: patterns of crime and land use change

Criminologists have long-known that different locations have varying levels of risk for criminal victimization. Based on the geometry of crime and its corresponding crime generators and crime attractors, edges (boundaries between relatively homogeneous neighborhoods) are locations with an elevated risk of criminal victimization. In this article, we investigate the importance of edges. We find that criminal victimization rates are 2-3 times on an edge compared to elsewhere. However, this effect decreases very quickly moving away from these locations, with the effect gone at 40 meters. This general effect is identified in a number of contexts and locations.