Micro-places, multi-level frameworks, and modeling the spatial granularity of crime

Cory Schnell, M. Dylan Spencer

Research output: Contribution to book or proceedingChapterpeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter examines research on the spatial granularity of crime patterns. Due to the malleability of the concept of “place” there are often multiple viable spatial units of analysis researchers could select to analyze a crime problem. Therefore, researchers must address a fundamental challenge of spatial analyses and make difficult decisions about what place is the most appropriate to tell their story of where crime happens. This chapter is divided into two general sections to address this issue. The first section addresses spatial granularity through the perspective of micro-places. The second section addresses recent research on multi-level frameworks to examine spatial granularity. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of these discussions to help offer a final assessment of the key questions we proposed about the spatial granularity of crime.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHandbook on Cities and Crime
Pages125-140
Number of pages16
ISBN (Electronic)9781800375710
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 17 2025

Publication series

NameHandbook on Cities and Crime

Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Social Sciences

Keywords

  • Crime
  • Hierarchical models
  • Micro-places
  • Modifiable aerial unit problem
  • Neighborhoods
  • Spatial variability

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Micro-places, multi-level frameworks, and modeling the spatial granularity of crime'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this