Background: This research demonstrates how the Akaike information criterion (AIC) can be an alternative to null hypothesis significance testing in selecting best fitting models. It presents an example to illustrate how AIC can be used in this way. Methods:Using data from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we test models of place-based predictor variables on street robbery and commercial robbery. We build models to balance explanatory power and parsimony. Measures include the presence of different kinds of businesses, together with selected age groups and social disadvantage.Results: Models including place-based measures of land use emerged as the best models among the set of tested models. These were superior to models that included measures of age and socioeconomic status. The best models for commercial and street robbery include three measures of ordinary businesses, liquor stores, and spatial lag.Conclusions: Models based on information theory offer a useful alternative to significance testing when a strong theoretical framework guides the selection of model sets. Theoretically relevant 'ordinary businesses' have a greater influence on robbery than socioeconomic variables and most measures of discretionary businesses.
This special issue of Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (JRCD) presents an important collection of papers on crime and place. Since the introduction of this perspective in Crime and Place, volume 4 in Crime Prevention Studies (Eck and Weisburd 1995), researchers have applied increasingly powerful tools of spatial analysis to test criminological theory and assess crime prevention initiatives. The crime and place perspective is both more abstract and practical than traditional approaches to understanding crime. While people provide a natural unit of analysis, what constitutes a place is abstract, providing more opportunities to customize measures and data collection. At the same time place-based analysis is more useful in preventing crime, as articles in this special issue demonstrate. JRCD has always specialized in publishing theory-based empirical research. That continues to be the case with this special issue. However articles here draw more on opportunity-based theories than what is sometimes called ''propensity-based'' theory. Researchers in this special issue focus on how crime is done, and the role of place in providing or thwarting opportunities for crime. Although this approach will be unfamiliar to many readers, it is central to environmental criminology that examines how place affects crime. This is the first special issue of JRCD in several years. The topic was proposed by the guest editors who solicited contributions from individual authors and issued a general call-for-papers. I am very grateful to George Rengert, Elizabeth Groff, and John Eck for developing the special issue, assembling these papers, and for managing the review process. All papers were read by outside referees. Some papers were submitted to the special issue but not accepted for publication. I am also grateful to the authors for doing the research that appears here and for persisting with revisions through the review process.
In recent years, journals in many different fields have shifted toward the use of a structured abstract rather than a narrative abstract format. After discussions involving editors and representatives from editorial boards of Journal of Experimental Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, we agreed that this movement was a good one, and that it would be a benefit to our authors, reviewers, and readers if we moved to this approach together. Structured abstracts have the advantage of providing more clearly delineated statements of an article's approach and contributions, and allow for a standardized presentation of such issues. We have developed a structured abstract drawing from examples in other fields but have adapted it to criminological research. The abstract format, beginning with this issue, includes the following instructions:The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency requires a structured abstract of 200 words or less. We will not consider a manuscript unless it is accompanied by an abstract organized into the following four fields: objectives, methods, results, and conclusions.
It has been a privilege to serve as editor of JRCD for the last eight years, but it's time for new leadership. I am very pleased to announce that effective January 2017, Jean McGloin and Christopher Sullivan will become coeditors. Jean and Chris have been invaluable resources as associate editors, and I'm certain they will do a superb job in their new roles. They will soon learn that editing a top-tier journal is a mixed bag of enormous satisfaction and a little bit of spear catching. In my own experience, the satisfaction far outweighs the occasional difficulties. I have tried to do a few key things as editor, with moderate success. First, we receive an increasing number of submissions from international scholars. Just about every issue, over the past few years, has included one or more papers presenting research from other countries. In many such cases, scholars examine unusual data that are difficult to obtain in the United States. International researchers sometimes draw on different theoretical frameworks that have not been much evident in U.S. journals. Environmental criminology is one example. A second area I have tried to emphasize is guiding younger scholars in the transition from graduate school papers and dissertations to publishing original research in academic journals. That partly stems from a course I regularly teach at John Jay College. Even more important are supportive, ''developmental'' reviews that help less experienced scholars express themselves more clearly. I am grateful to the Editorial Board members and other reviewers who have contributed their time and expertise to this important effort. Third, beginning in 2014, Sage expanded JRCD to six issues per year. That helped reduce a backlog of accepted papers but more important created the opportunity to publish special issues. The first, in 2014, presented a collection of original articles that reflect on the 50-year history of the Journal. In 2015 Brandon Welsh, Anthony Braga, and Gerben Bruinsma edited the special issue, ''Reimagining Broken Windows: From Theory to Policy.'' Articles presented original research and systematic reviews on this
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