Although Sa˜o Paulo is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, very little is known about the variations of levels of crime in this Brazilian city over time. This article begins by investigating whether or not homicides are seasonal in Sa˜o Paulo. Then, hypotheses based on the principles of routine activities theory are tested to evaluate the influence of weather and temporal variations on violent behaviour expressed as cases of homicides. Finally, the geography of space-time clusters of high homicide areas are assessed using Geographical Information System (GIS) and Kulldorff's scan test. The findings suggest that central and peripheral deprived areas show the highest number of killings over the year. Moreover, homicides take place when most people have time off: particularly during vacations (hot months of the year), evenings and weekends. Overall, the results show that temporal variables are far more powerful for explaining levels of homicide than weather covariates for the Brazilian case-a finding that lends weight to the suggested hypotheses derived from routine activity theory.

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract This study uses data of about 9000 apartment sales in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess the impact of crime on property prices. The study employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to combine apartment sales by coordinates with offences, land-use characteristics and demographic data of the population. The novelty of this research is threefold. First, it explores a set of land-use attributes created by spatial techniques in GIS in combination with detailed geographical data in hedonic pricing modelling. Second, the effect of crime in neighbouring zones at one place can be measured by incorporating spatial lagged variables of offence rates into the model. Third, the study provides evidence of the impact of crime on housing prices in a capital city of a welfare state country, information otherwise lacking in the international literature. Our results indicate that apartment prices in a specific area are strongly affected by crime in its neighbouring zones, regardless of crime type. When offences were broken down by types, residential burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery individually had a significant negative effect on property values. However, for residential burglary such an effect is not homogenous across space, and apartment prices in central areas are often less discounted by being exposed to crime than those in the city's outskirts.

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Our current understanding of the role of the social environment in crime causation is at best rudimentary. Guided by the theoretical framework of Situational Action Theory, and using data from the ESRC financed Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS?), this paper aims to propose how we can better theorise and study the role of the social environment, particularly the person and place interaction, in crime causation. We will introduce, and illustrate the usefulness of, a space-time budget methodology as a means of capturing people's exposure to settings and describing their activity fields. We will suggest and demonstrate that, combined with a small area community survey and psychometric measures of individual characteristics, a space-time budget is a powerful tool for advancing our knowledge about the role of the social environment, and its interaction with people's crime propensity, in crime causation. Our unique data allows us to study the convergence in time and space of crime propensity, criminogenic exposure and crime events. As far as we are aware, such an analysis has never before been carried out. The findings show that there are (a) clear associations between young people's activity fields and their exposure to criminogenic settings, (b) clear associations between their exposure to criminogenic settings and their crime involvement, and, crucially, (c) that the influence of criminogenic exposure depends on a person's crime propensity. Having a crime-averse morality and strong ability to exercise self-control appears to make young people practically situationally immune to the influences of criminogenic settings, while having a crime-prone moralityThe Peterborough Adolescent and Young Adult Development Study (PADS?) is funded by a large grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). For further information about PADS? and its research see www.pads.ac.uk.

The authors investigate geographical patterns of homicide in São Paulo, Brazil. The geography of crime in developing world cities has been an underresearched area in part because of the lack of good-quality, geocoded offence data. In the case of São Paulo the availability of a new digital police dataset has provided the opportunity to improve our understanding of its crime patterns. The authors report the testing of hypotheses about the spatial variation in homicide rates. This variation is explained by poverty, situational conditions determined by differences in land use, and processes that indicate links with the geography of drug markets and the availability of firearms.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to investigate changes since the early 1980's in offence patterns for residential burglary, theft of and from cars, and vandalism in Stockholm City using methods from spatial statistics. The findings of previous Swedish studies on crime patterns and the insights provided by different theories notably one propounded by Wikström(1991) provide a background for this study and are briefly reviewed. The analytical elements of the paper are in two main parts. The first is a brief description of methodological procedures to obtain robust estimates of small area standardised offence ratios. Attention is paid to both the spatial framework as well as the method of calculating rates. Standardised offence ratios (SORs), are calculated and mapped using GIS and the Getis-Ord statistic is used to identify areas of raised incidence. The variation in a relative risk is modelled as a function of socio-economic variables using the linear regression model whilst recognising the complications raised by the spatial nature of the data. Results suggest that whilst there have been no dramatic changes in the geographies of these offences in Stockholm City during the last decade, there have been some shifts both in terms of geographical patterns and in their association with underlying socio-economic conditions. Terms of use: Documents in