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Crime Modeling and Mapping Using Geospatial Technologies pp 203–225Cite as

A Methodology for Assessing Dynamic Fine Scale Built Environments and Crime: A Case Study of the Lower 9th Ward After Hurricane Katrina

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Part of the book series: Geotechnologies and the Environment ((GEOTECH,volume 8))

Abstract

This chapter will present a method of data collection and analysis for fine scale environments experiencing change. The setting for this work is the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans for the period 2010 and 2011. The approach described here utilizes a low cost mobile data collection strategy involving a spatial video, a built environment coding scheme, and fine scale spatial analysis using a spatial filter that creates a surface of abandonment/blight/returnee rates linked to individual crimes. This chapter will also address the need for longitudinal analysis beyond simply considering changes in crime events by framing crimes between two data collection periods. Although this chapter should be viewed as a methodological example, including the importance of primary data collection and spatial investigation at the street segment scale, one interesting result is that crimes in association with abandonment and blight only became statistically significant for the 2011 landscape. The chapter concludes with several examples of spatial video derived fine scale maps that can be used to advance current spatial crime theories.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There are other methodological advantages of working with fine-scale geographies, such as a street segment, as coding errors are minimized (Brantingham et al. 2009).

  2. 2.

    For other examples see Taylor et al. (1985), Perkins et al. (1992, 1993), Perkins and Taylor (1996), Loukaitou-Sideris (1999), Sampson and Raudenbush (1999), and Loukaitou-Sideris et al. (2002).

  3. 3.

    A New York Times magazine article “Jungleland: the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans gives new meaning to ‘urban growth’” by Nathaniel Rich describes in a general sense many of the visual vegetative, returnee and blight problems faced by the neighborhood (see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magazine/the-lower-ninth-ward-new-orleans.html?_r=1&ref=magazine).

  4. 4.

    Crimes were extracted from the Metro New Orleans Crime Map (http://www.nola.com/crime/nolasearchresults.ssf) which repurposes crime data from a variety of sources including the New Orleans Police Department.

  5. 5.

    Crimes were reported by block segment, which even with digitizing using the associated map as guide, still leaves a degree of uncertainty as to exactly where the event took place. For several crimes it was easy to determine the location on the sparsely populated landscape, though for the purpose of maps presented in this chapter, the vagueness is preserved for ethical reasons. However, other studies are confident at working with just the aggregation of the street segment or block face which then limits errors associated with geocoding accuracy (see Weisburd et al. 2004; Braga et al. 2011).

  6. 6.

    For this analysis, crimes were collapsed into convenient categories thought to be of similar types with regards to their relationship with the landscape. In this way “incivility” combines simple drug arrests, simple arson and vandalism; “auto” combines car theft and theft from a car.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. GIS Health & Hazards Lab, Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Andrew Curtis Ph.D. & Jacqueline W. Curtis Ph.D.

  2. Department of History, Rice University, Houston, USA

    S. Wright Kennedy M.A.

  3. Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Louisiana, USA

    Amit Kulkarni

  4. Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Traci Auer

Authors
  1. Andrew Curtis Ph.D.
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  2. Jacqueline W. Curtis Ph.D.
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  3. S. Wright Kennedy M.A.
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  4. Amit Kulkarni
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  5. Traci Auer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew Curtis Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University, E104 Howe-Russell Geoscience Bldg., Baton Rouge, 70803, USA

    Michael Leitner

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Curtis, A., Curtis, J.W., Kennedy, S.W., Kulkarni, A., Auer, T. (2013). A Methodology for Assessing Dynamic Fine Scale Built Environments and Crime: A Case Study of the Lower 9th Ward After Hurricane Katrina. In: Leitner, M. (eds) Crime Modeling and Mapping Using Geospatial Technologies. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4997-9_9

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