Crimes of Opportunity or Crimes of Emotion? Testing Two Explanations of Seasonal Change in Crime

Hipp, John R.; Bauer, Daniel J.; Curran, Patrick J.; Bollen, Kenneth A.

doi:10.1353/sof.2004.0074

Cited by 151 publications

(155 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…The findings of this research, rather than confirming a lunar-crime/ disorder relationship, corroborated earlier literature establishing that crime varied temporally (Cohn, 1996;Heller & Markland, 1970;LeBeau & Corcoran, 1990;LeBeau & Langworthy, 1986) and due to weather (Cheatwood, 1995;Cohn, 1990b;Hipp et al, 2004;Quételet, 1842Quételet, /1969Rotton & Cohn, 2003). Weekends and nightly temperature were consistently and positively associated with aggregated levels of crime, though there was variation based on specific offense categories.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…More contemporary analyses of policing data from American communities tended to find that many types of personal and property crimes were more common during periods of warm versus cool or cold weather (Cheatwood, 1995;Cohn, 1990bCohn, , 1996Hipp, Bauer, Curran, & Bollen, 2004;Rotton & Cohn, 2003) and that demand for police services were greater during periods of warmer temperature and longer hours of daylight (i.e., spring and summer) (Cohn, 1996;Heller & Markland, 1970;LeBeau & Corcoran, 1990;LeBeau & Langworthy, 1986). 1 Research suggested this relationship generally held true, though there were upper limits.…”

Section: Lunar Effects On Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

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Bad moon on the rise? Lunar cycles and incidents of crime

Schafer

Varano

Jarvis

et al. 2010

Journal of Criminal Justice

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a b s t r a c tPopular cultures in Western societies have long espoused the notion that phases of the moon influence human behavior. In particular, there is a common belief the full moon increases incidents of aberrant, deviant, and criminal behavior. Using police, astronomical, and weather data from a major southwestern American city, this study assessed whether lunar cycles related with rates of reported crime. The findings fail to support popular lore, which has suggested that lunar phase influenced the volume of crime reported to the police. Future research directions examining qualitative rather than quantitative aspects of this problem may yield further inform the understanding of whether lunar cycles appreciably influence demands for policing services.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Lunar Effects On Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

Bad moon on the rise? Lunar cycles and incidents of crime

Schafer

Varano

Jarvis

et al. 2010

Journal of Criminal Justice

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“…In addition, we have not examined the relationship between other weather types (eg snowfall) because this is not likely to be a significant factor in the relatively mild winters of the UK but, we suggest, these techniques could be feasibly used to investigate the effects of such variables in regions with different climatic regimes. Finally, future work could supplement the analysis with additional factors, such as the spatial concentration of public houses and other entertainment establishments, and the use of contextual variablesö for example, socioeconomic covariates [as applied in the study by Hipp et al (2004)]. This should form the basis for more detailed qualitative analysis in order to explain observed patterns.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Trends in violent crime tended to support both the RA theory and the T/A theory. Their main conclusion was therefore that``the T/A theory may well have some use in explaining violent crime, but the bulk of our findings on seasonal changes in both violent and property crime can be attributed to RA theory and the fact that the changing behaviour patterns of individuals during mild temperatures increases opportunities for criminal victimization'' (Hipp et al, 2004(Hipp et al, , page 1365. However, the RA theory does not appear to be supportive of trends in other cultural contexts; Yan (2004), for example, notes a lack of seasonality in burglary and total theft in Hong Kong.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The influence of weather on local geographical patterns of police calls for service

et al. 2009

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Abstract. The effect of weather elements on the incidence of different types of crime has been the focus of a number of research studies. However, the detailed geographical dimension of this relationship has been largely ignored. The aim of this paper is to broaden the research on weather and crime to consider the effect of weather parameters on the spatial arrangement of crime within an urban area of the UK. A novel combination of techniques that are capable of both evaluating statistically and visualising geographically the effect of weather variables on the incidence of one type of crime, namely calls for police service for disorder or disturbances, is presented. These techniques are examined in relation to the theories that have traditionally been put forward to explain such trends. We conclude that, in our study area, both temperature and humidity exert significant effects on the spatial patterning of incidents of disorder or disturbances. Rainfall, wind speed, and wind direction were found not to have a significant effect for this type of call for service. More research is needed to see how transferable these findings are to other geographical areas with different climatic regimes.

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“…Many studies have tested the effect of population size, but ignored the effect of population density (examples include Ousey 1999;Sampson 1987). Other studies have tested the effect of population density, but ignored effects of population size (examples include Hipp, Bauer, Curran, and Bollen 2004;Kposowa, Breault, and Harrison 1995). 2 Studies testing both simultaneously have found a stronger effect for population size and almost no effect for population density (Bailey 1984;Kovandzic, Vieratis, and Yeisley 1998;Land, McCall, and Cohen 1990;Messner 1983;Messner and Sampson 1991;Williams 1984), although occasional studies have found modest evidence for a density-crime relationship (Liska, Logan, and Bellair 1998;Messner and Sampson 1991).…”

Section: Empirical Evidence Of Population Size Density and Crimementioning

confidence: 99%

Micro- and Macro-Environment Population and the Consequences for Crime Rates

Hipp

Roussell

2013

Social Forces

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* We would like to thank Malcolm Holmes, Marisa Omori, and Akhila Ananth for their helpful comments on drafts of the manuscript. The authors remain solely responsible for the analyses, interpretations, and opinions presented herein. Aaron Roussell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, Pullman. One major branch of his research focuses the ways that crime relates to geography, place, and shifting demographics and the implications for social theory and policy. He publishes in the fields of sociology, criminology, and socio-legal studies.Population density and crime 3 Micro-and macro-environment population and the consequences for crime rates AbstractFew studies have explored Louis Wirth's propositions regarding of the independent effects of population size and density due to the conceptual difficulty in distinguishing between them. We directly address this conundrum by conceptualizing these as micro-population density and macro-population density. We propose two novel measures for these constructs: population density exposure to capture micro-density, and a measure of population within a 20 mile radius to capture macro-density. We combine the theoretical insights of Wirth with routine activities theory to posit and find strong nonlinear effects of micro-density on crime rates, as well as the moderating effect of macro-density. We find strong evidence of macro social processes for population size including: 1) its strongest effect occurred for crimes generally between strangers (robberies and motor vehicle thefts); 2) virtually no effect for homicides, a type of crime that often occurs among non-strangers. For micro-density, our findings include: 1) strong curvilinear effects for the three types of property crime; 2) diminishing positive effects for robbery and homicide; and 3) a strikingly different pattern for aggravated assault. The effects for micro-density are stronger than for macro-density, a finding unexplored in the extant literature. We discuss the implications of these results within the context of Wirth's theoretical framework as well as routine activities theory, and suggest ways to extend these findings.Population density and crime 4 Micro-and macro-environment population and the consequences for crime rates

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Crimes of Opportunity or Crimes of Emotion? Testing Two Explanations of Seasonal Change in Crime

Cited by 151 publications

References 84 publications

Bad moon on the rise? Lunar cycles and incidents of crime

Bad moon on the rise? Lunar cycles and incidents of crime

The influence of weather on local geographical patterns of police calls for service

Micro- and Macro-Environment Population and the Consequences for Crime Rates

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