Spatial heterogeneity in crime analysis

Abstract

Issues related to the modifiable areal unit problem are well-understood within geography. Though these issues are acknowledged in the spatial crime analysis literature, there is little research that assesses their impact. In fact, much of the cited spatial crime analysis literature that investigates the impact of modified areal units suggests that there is no problem-there is, however, an alternative literature. In this paper, we employ a new area-based spatial point pattern test to investigate the impact of modified areal units on crime patterns. We are able to show that despite the appearance of similarity in a (spatial) regression context, smaller units of analysis do show a high degree of variation within the larger units they are nested. Though this result in and of itself is not new, we also quantify how much spatial heterogeneity is present. This quantification is undertaken using multiple crime classifications and in a cross-national comparison.