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This paper seeks to disaggregate the relative effects of key environmental, economic, and social factors, including risk of crime, on food access in Newark, New Jersey. First, we identify environmental risk factors that contribute to the spatial distribution of aggravated assault. We then compare the results of this analysis that generates risk scores for assault in microenvironments to food access maps. The final part of the analysis assesses the relationship of these risk scores to macro level measures of social disorganization in determining their differential impact on food access. The results of this study suggest that high-risk environments for aggravated assaults and the presence of abandoned properties are strongly associated with the distribution of food access. In addition, individuals who are going to bodegas to get food within food deserts are also increasing their risks of becoming victims of aggravated assault. As such, food policy must consider how to mitigate the negative effects of multiple layers of deprivation, including crime, to better eradicate food deserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violent crime incidents occurring in Irvington, New Jersey, in 2007 and 2008 are used to assess the joint analytical capabilities of point pattern analysis, hotspot mapping, near-repeat analysis, and risk terrain modeling. One approach to crime analysis suggests that the best way to predict future crime occurrence is to use past behavior, such as actual incidents or collections of incidents, as indicators of future behavior. An alternative approach is to consider the environment in which crimes occur and identify features of the landscape that would be conducive to crime. Thanks to advances in geographic information system technology and federally funded (free) software applications such as CrimeStat III or the Near Repeat Calculator, these methods have recently been made more accessible to "average" users. This study explores the information products that each method offers for the purposes of place-based violent crime forecasting and resource allocation. Findings help to answer questions about where, when, and why violent crimes occur in a jurisdiction. Ways in which event-dependent and environmental crime analysis techniques can be utilized as complementary instruments in a crime analyst's tool kit are discussed in detail. (Contains 13 notes, 5 figures, and 7 tables.)

Explains the use of literature reviews on crime and criminality to teach about research problems in an undergraduate sociology course. Using James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrstein's "Crime and Human Nature" sourcebook that provided a comprehensive literature review, students examined a subset of original articles summarized in the review. (SLM)

The Atlantic City Police Department intervened to reduce robberies with an evidence-based approach grounded in problem-oriented policing. Informed by risk terrain modeling and hot spot analysis, police commanders implemented a place-based intervention focused around convenience stores. Target areas throughout the city were reprioritized each month to create a dynamic deployment strategy that efficiently allocated resources to the most vulnerable places. Risk reduction actions, such as business checks, were favored over law enforcement against people. Robberies significantly decreased by 63% within four months. There was a significant spatial diffusion of benefits and there were fewer arrests, as should be expected with fewer crimes and a tactical place-based, not person-oriented, approach. Implications for policy and practice are discussed within the contexts of rapid evidence-based police responses to urgent crime problems, police culture, and data analytics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]