Spatial patterns of violent crimes and neighborhood characteristics in Changchun, China
| Date | 01 March 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865814547133 |
| Published date | 01 March 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2016, Vol. 49(1) 53–72
!The Author(s) 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865814547133
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Article
Spatial patterns of violent
crimes and neighborhood
characteristics in
Changchun, China
Daqian Liu
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Wei Song
Department of Geography and Geosciences,
University of Louisville, KY, USA
Chunliang Xiu
School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, China
Abstract
Crime is one of the major concerns facing Chinese cities. Using crime data compiled at police
precinct level in 2008, this research examines spatial patterns of violent crimes in Changchun,
and explores the relationship between the spatial distribution of violent crimes and neigh-
borhood characteristics. Crime rates are applied as a measure of the intensity of violent
crimes. Spatial statistics and geographic information systems are used to detect violent crime
hot spots, or statistically significant locales of high violent crime rates in Changchun. A mul-
tiple linear regression model is calibrated to assess the impacts of contextual neighborhood
characteristics on violent crimes. The analytical results demonstrate that the risk or intensity
of violent crimes is strongly concentrated in the central city area, and neighborhood socio-
economic, demographic, especially land use characteristics are effective in accounting for the
spatial variation in the distribution of violent crimes across the city of Changchun. These
findings are largely in line with the routine activities theory, social disorganization theory, and
the framework of crime prevention through environmental design, which emphasize the
importance of opportunities, local social context, and environmental design in shaping
the spatial pattern of and reducing urban crimes.
Keywords
China, crime hotspots, neighborhood characteristics, spatial patterns, violent crime
Corresponding author:
Wei Song, Department of Geography and Geosciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
Email: wei.song@louisville.edu
Introduction
With the accelerating urbanization in China, urban crime has increasingly become one of
the major challenges facing Chinese cities. Similar to the experience of other nations,
Chinese cities have become more diverse and differentiated along social and economic
dimensions. Undeniably, an unfortunate cost of China’s rapid modernization and
urbanization is increasing risks of criminal victimization. City governments, policy
makers, and policing agencies all recognize the importance of better understanding
the dynamics of urban crimes. Exploring and analyzing patterns of urban crimes can
provide crucial information about crimes and form indispensable bases in the develop-
ment of theoretical explanations and effective policing practices. As pointed out by Liu
(2005), examining China’s crime patterns during this period of rapid social change will
make an important contribution to the literature, and provide important insights into
the development of theoretical explanations.
Nevertheless, due to limited access to crime data, most of the crime studies in China
have long focused on introducing western theories, policy issues, or simple narrative of
current crime situations. Substantial empirical investigations are for the most part lack-
ing. Quantitative and interdisciplinary research, in particular, is rare in China. Some
encouraging changes, however, have emerged in recent years. As public concerns over
urban crimes and safety grow, more local law enforcement agencies have started colla-
borating with academic organizations in conducting empirical crime studies in order to
develop more effective crime prevention and crime reduction policing strategies.
In this study, we chose Changchun, the capital city of Jilin province in northeast
China, as the study area to explore spatial patterns of the city’s violent crimes. Crime
data were collected at the level of police precincts in 2008 from the Public Security
Bureau of Changchun. We chose violent crimes to investigate because violent crimes
seriously endanger urban residents, cause greater levels of fear among the public, and sig-
nificantly lower the sense of safety of the city, thus calling for more careful and thorough
investigation. Specifically, we undertook the following research tasks and reported cor-
responding analytical results. First, we examined the geographical distribution of violent
crime rates in Changchun and detected the violent crime hot spots using spatial statistics
and geographic information system (GIS). Second, a linear regression model was devel-
oped to analyze the relationships between spatial patterns of violent crime rates and
selected locational and neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic characteristics.
Our primary goal is to explore both the spatial pattern of violent crime risks and the
underlying structural factors to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of violent
crimes in the city of Changchun.
Literature review
As recognized earlier by western researchers, crime has an inherent geographical quality.
When a crime occurs, it happens at a place with a geographical location (Chainey &
Ratcliffe, 2005). Crime also does not spread randomly but tends to concentrate at par-
ticular places, which has been empirically supported by adequate research (Brantingham
& Brantingham, 1984; Cohen & Felson, 1979; Chainey, Tompson, & Uhlig, 2008;
Johnson, 2010; Sherman, Gartin, & Buerger, 1989; Weisburd, Bushway, Lum, &
54 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 49(1)
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