Burglary Rates and Neighborhood Contextual Characteristics: A Case Study in Hartford, Connecticut

Keywords: Burglary, Contextual Characteristics, Hartford, Geographically Weighted Regression
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

There is a long-standing interest in the spatial relationship between neighborhood contextual characteristics and crime in the U.S., since such relationship allows police and neighborhood stakeholders to better understand the spatial distribution of crime and design prevention programs to reduce crime risk. The objectives of this research are to 1) examine the relationship between burglary rates and contextual characteristics at the neighborhood-level in the city of Hartford, Connecticut and 2) account for spatial spillover effects of burglary crime penetrating neighborhood boundaries. The analysis results of this research show that predictors such as poverty, tenure of housing, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic diversity are significantly associated with burglary rates across the city. Additionally, the use of the Geographically Weighted Regression model for the spatially weighted burglary rates helps better reveal the spatial relationships between burglary crime and contextual factors, since it explained 68.1 percent of the variances of burglary crime, compared with 60.2 percent using the raw burglary rates. The results are discussed, and implications are given in the context of Hartford.