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Examining the effect of housing density and composition on residential burglary in Wuhan, China

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Abstract

Urban morphology plays a significant role in shaping the spatial distribution of crime. This study takes an environmental criminology perspective on crime and examines how residential burglary is related to two typical morphology features—housing density and composition, which were rarely concerned by previous research. Wuhan, the largest city in central China, was selected as the case study. We first applied a new urban morphology approach to identify the morphology category of each neighborhood based on its housing density and composition. Negative binomial regression models were adopted to evaluate the impacts of morphology factors on the residential burglary at the neighborhood level while controlling for socio-demographic features, transport facilities, housing price and age. Results suggest that both housing composition and density are significantly associated with residential burglary. In particular, one unit increase in Floor Space Index, an indicator of housing density and Ground Space Index, an indicator of housing composition could lead to an 11.9% and 9.1% increase in the incident rate of residential burglary. The ‘block’ and ‘strip’ composition exert more substantial impacts than ‘point’ composition; neighborhoods with ‘high’ and ‘medium’ residences tend to be more dangerous than neighborhoods with ‘low’ residences. Results of this study reveal that communities must be designed with the relationship between risk levels of residential burglary and the ways by which communities are designed in mind. Implications regarding burglary prevention and neighborhood planning practices are discussed.

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Data availability

Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by Open Fund of State Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University (Grant No. 21I02), and the Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (41961062), Key Research & Development Program of Guangxi Provence (2019AB16010), and Program of Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (2018JJA150089), and National College Students’ innovation and entrepreneurship training program (S202110603170).

Funding

This research was funded by the Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (41961062), KeyResearch & Development Program of Guangxi Provence (2019AB16010), and Program of Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province (2018JJA150089), and National College Students' innovation and entrepreneurship training program (S202110603170).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of GeoInformatics for Public Security, School of Geography and Remote Sensing, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Han Yue

  2. Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74074, USA

    Tao Hu

  3. Natural Resource and Surveying School, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, 530001, China

    Duan Lian

  4. Health Geography and Education Information Center, Nanning Normal University, Nanning, 530001, China

    Duan Lian

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  1. Han Yue
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  2. Tao Hu
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  3. Duan Lian
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Correspondence to Tao Hu.

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Yue, H., Hu, T. & Duan, L. Examining the effect of housing density and composition on residential burglary in Wuhan, China. J Hous and the Built Environ 38, 399–417 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-022-09951-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-022-09951-3

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