The impact of spatial accessibility to police services on crime levels is not straightforward. Previous research shows diverging outcomes of police presence over crime. One major reason for this is reporting bias, when higher accessibility creates incentives for higher crime reporting. Unlike other types of crimes, murder is assumed to be immune to reporting bias due to the severity of the offense: virtually all murders are reported. A set of OLS regressions of crimes on the spatial accessibility index with controls shows that an increase of a 1-index point in spatial accessibility (roughly a decrease of 2km in the average minimum distance to the nearest police station and an increase of 1 additional police station within a 5km radius) is associated with a 32 percent decrease in homicides. Overall, greater spatial accessibility to police stations deters murders significantly, and at the same time creates incentives for higher crime reporting.
The objective of the study is to create an index that measures the population’s spatial accessibility to primary justice fora in Paraguay. The data used for the analysis include households registered in the 2012 census, with their corresponding geographic coordinates, as well as all available geodata for selected justice-related public services within the same studied area. The methodology proposed is the application of a minimum distance analysis, together with a point proximity buffer analysis. Results show that women have slightly better accessibility to these services than men: they tend to live closer to said facilities have more options at hand. Additionally, findings show that the spatial accessibility improves as population size increases, with the caveat that, as a country historically heavily centralized around its capital, a “gravity” effect can be seen as districts closest to Asuncion exhibit a very high accessibility index, while those farthest from it experience the opposite.
The main objective of the study is to create an index that measures the population’s spatial accessibility to primary justice fora in Paraguay, identifying areas that need additional resources to improve such access. The data used for the analysis include all households registered in the 2012 census in Paraguay, with their corresponding geographic coordinates, as well as all available geodata for selected justice-related public services within the same studied area. The methodology proposed is the application of a minimum distance analysis, together with a point proximity buffer analysis. Results show that districts located in the Central department of Paraguay have the highest accessibility index in the country, while those locate in the Chaco area have the lowest. Similarly, population size seems to be a relevant factor that play into the supply side of justice fora.
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