NCJ Number
85382
Date Published
1981
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This chapter provides a brief review and a comment on the current state of the literature on criminal mobility.
Abstract
The study of criminal mobility is important, because the knowledge of types and variations in criminal activity can help local police administrators more accurately target their resources in countering crime. Thus far, research has provided some evidence that criminal mobility is limited; offenders do not travel great distances from their residences to commit crimes. It may be, however, that the more mobile criminals are the most effective and evasive; consequently, the empirical evidence may be biased toward the unsophisticated, less successful offender. Some evidence suggests that the police may have an impact on whether crimes are committed locally or in adjacent localities. The issue is whether the magnitude of crime spillover is great even if the spillover variable appears statistically significant. A number of policies to combat spillover have been suggested, notably the consolidation of police agencies and jurisdictions, cooperative production of police services, and complex tax and subsidy schemes. The ability of each of these mechanisms to deal with certain types of external effects is theoretically demonstrated by economists. There are considerable operational and political barriers to all these solutions, however. Overall, there is little empirical basis for specific recommendations to deal with the mobile criminal. Seven notes and 51 references are provided.