Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Crimes and Social Vulnerability in Chicago Since 2000

Keywords: Social vulnerability, spatial criminology, spatio-temporal model, crime patterns, Chicago
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Social scientists have long sought to understand why crimes occur at certain places and times. It is well known that crimes exhibit spatial and temporal concentration patterns in many urban environments. Spatial crime patterns have been studied by some specific social factors. However, research connecting crime locations and the overall social vulnerability of places in a micro-level urban context is sparsely available. This paper aims to contribute better understanding on how crime patterns are related to the social vulnerability of places using the city of Chicago as a case study. The social vulnerability of places will be characterized by a social vulnerability index (SVI) created using the principal components analysis based on a multitude of socio-economic and demographic variables at the census tract and larger neighborhood levels. After exploring how the patterns of SVI and crimes have changed in the city since 2000, we will build a spatio-temporal model to understand how major social vulnerability factors can explain the patterns of crimes. We expect that the results contribute a better understanding of the social determinants of crime patterns.