Paul Brindley

Unpacking the dynamics of domestic burglary time-space continuum.

There is no denying that crime and issues relating to crime are extremely pertinent in today's society. Crime can incur a devastating impact on the lives of many victims, scaring entire communities, and the costs to society as a whole are substantial (Social Exclusion Unit, 2002). The average loss associated with domestic burglary is £1,883 with just under half of those involved not covered by insurance (Simmons, 2002). Of those interviewed by the 2001/2002 British Crime Survey who had been victims of domestic burglary, eighty-one percent felt they were emotionally affected with feelings of anger, shock and fear all featuring prominently (Simmons, 2002). Crimes are not random, isolated and unique events, but rather share common features and distinct patterns.

Current environmental criminology research frequently views place, behaviour, time and space as separate commodities, simplifying the complex nature of crime. Routine Activities Theory (RAT - Cohen and Felson, 1979) speculates that opportunity exists when there is a convergence of a suitable target, a motivated offender, and a lack of capable guardian. This assumes that some sort of 'spark' initiates a crime when these components are in a combined existence - but there is little understanding of what might lie behind this.

The broad aim of the research is to bring together the synthesis of behaviour, place, time and space, in order to add understanding on how high/low crime areas are reproduced. High crime areas are socially reproduced and exist only if individuals continue to offend within the area. Routines are considered of great importance in the reproduction of social entities (Giddens, 1984). If a better understanding of such reproduction is gained, this will enviably have important implications for crime reduction policy.

This research will examine the time-space patterns of nearly 60,000 reported incidences of domestic burglary in South Yorkshire between 1998 and 2001, in order to investigate the routine nature of crime. High/low crime areas will be unpacked in an attempt to generate a probability density surface to reflect the likelihood or risk of being involved in domestic burglary (either as a victim or an offender). The contributions that temporal and spatial patterns make to the crime rate of areas will be investigated. For example, a high crime area may only be a 'hotspot' at specific times.

The originality of this research lies in the fact of combining place, behaviour, time and space together. It will investigate that places may have a structure that is produced and maintained through reproduction, and thus, the role of place upon the patterns of domestic burglary will be explored.

email : p.brindley@sheffield.ac.uk