Crime and urban space: the relationship networks between crime, victims and location in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Urban crime is one of the most serious problems in developing countries. In contexts of strong social inequality, as in Brazil, criminal activities affect people's lives in a generalized way, apparently ignoring geographic, economic, or social contours. However, a rigorous reading of crime occurrences can reveal ways in which they might be intensified due to specific social and spatial factors. This paper investigates the relationships between crime, victims, and urban situations. The hypothesis is that these relationships are not random but involve patterns of connection between certain types of crime, characteristics of victims and location of the crime. Heterogeneous connections between these factors would make certain social groups more prone to specific types of crime. The article investigates these connections in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It does so proposing a method of analysis of complex networks capable of grouping (i) similar crime incidents according to victims' profiles, (ii) the characteristics of the types of crime registered and (iii) their distinct locations. The examination of this 'topology of urban crime' is carried out in a large-scale empirical study involving 5,000 randomly selected crime incidents, between 2007 and 2018, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.