NCJ Number
113882
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1988) Pages: 281-299
Date Published
1988
Length
19 pages
Annotation
A common question among both academicians and practitioners concerns the relationship between the weather and crime.
Abstract
Although early researchers, including Durkheim, introduced climatological factors in their discussion of human behavior and deviance, contemporary criminology tends to ignore these factors as possible contributors to changes in crime despite the ease with which weather variables fit into the routine activities and sociobiological perspectives. The present study investigates the weather-crime relationship, using daily weather figures (e.g. precipitation, humidity, temperature, barometric pressure) and crime data for a large eastern city. The results are discussed in terms of both direct and indirect effects on levels of deviance and the potential usefulness of the analysis for future sociobiological and environmental design approaches to crime control. (Author abstract)