The effects of weather on homicide

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

“…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.…”

“…The social contact hypothesis suggests that during times of pleasant weather, aggressive and hostile acts may be more common because there is an increase in normal human interactions, which increases the opportunity for interpersonal conflict. Within weather and crime research, scholars attempted to sort out the social versus physiological effects of weather on human behavior (Cheatwood, 1995).…”

“…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.…”

“…Rotton and Cohn (2000) found disorderly conduct and assault in Minneapolis had an 'inverted U-shaped' relationship; during periods of extreme heat and cold these behaviors were less frequent. In reviewing early weather and crime research, Cohn (1990a) When analyses accounted for temporal variables (i.e., time of day, weekends, holidays, periods when public schools are not in session), weather effects offered relatively modest explanatory effects (Cheatwood, 1995;Cohn, 1993). The influence of temporal and weather variables were presumably a result of changes in routine activities of offenders and victims (e.g., Cohen & Felson, 1979), though these effects might be trumped by situational variables .…”

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

“…Instead, much research has involved simple linear regressions of crime with temperature. The most common approach is to use daily data from one or two cities to test for a linear relationship between temperature and crime rates (Anderson & Anderson 1984;Cheatwood 1995;Cotton 1986;Farrell & Pease 1994;Harries & Stadler 1984;Suttles 1968). An advantage of these studies is that the daily crime and temperature data allow for a closer inspection of the temperature/crime relationship.…”