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Units of Analysis in Geographic Criminology: Historical Development, Critical Issues, and Open Questions

  • Chapter
Putting Crime in its Place

Abstract

Social scientists have had a long and enduring interest in the geography of crime and the explanation of variation of crime at place. In this introductory chapter, we first describe the history of crime and place studies, showing that in the course of two centuries, scholars have increasingly focused their interest on smaller spatial units of analysis. In the 19th century, they typically studied large administrative districts such as regions and countries. The Chicago School focused on much smaller urban communities. More recently, interest has moved toward geographic units as small as street blocks or addresses. After this historical account, we address specific questions regarding how the unit of analysis should be chosen for crime and place studies. We address substantive theoretical, statistical, and practical problems that are raised in choosing appropriate levels of geography for research and practice. We discuss issues of theory and data and consider the factors that have inhibited the study of units of analysis of crime at place to date, mentioning the specific contributions to the unit of analysis problem that are made by the chapters that follow.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Criminology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

  2. Department of Administration of Justice, George Mason University, Manassas, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  3. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) Leiden, The Netherlands

    Gerben J.N. Bruinsma & Wim Bernasco

  4. Department of Criminology, Leiden University, The Netherlands

    Gerben J.N. Bruinsma

Authors
  1. David Weisburd
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  2. Gerben J.N. Bruinsma
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  3. Wim Bernasco
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Criminology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

  2. Department of Administration of Justice, George Mason University, Manassas, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  3. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) Leiden, The Netherlands

    Wim Bernasco  & Gerben J.N. Bruinsma  & 

  4. Department of Criminology, Leiden University, The Netherlands

    Gerben J.N. Bruinsma

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Weisburd, D., Bruinsma, G.J., Bernasco, W. (2009). Units of Analysis in Geographic Criminology: Historical Development, Critical Issues, and Open Questions. In: Weisburd, D., Bernasco, W., Bruinsma, G.J. (eds) Putting Crime in its Place. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09688-9_1

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