NCJ Number
131518
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1991) Pages: 162-166
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
An effort was made to investigate the effect of airborne pollen levels on the number of 911 calls logged by the police department of a medium-sized midwestern city. Daily recordings of temperature, pollen count level, and the total number of 911 calls were available for the years 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989, March through October.
Abstract
Each year was partitioned into three relatively equal time periods -- TP1 (March 1-May 24), TP2 (May 25-August 14), and TP3 (August 15-October 31) -- the hypothesis being that airborne pollen and 911 calls would be positively correlated during TP1 and TP3 (periods of high pollen activity) but not during TP2 (period of low pollen activity). Results tended to support this hypothesis, although multivariate analyses revealed that these findings were largely a result of the moderately strong relationship between pollen and temperature, the latter of which was more strongly correlated with 911 calls for assistance. 1 table and 4 references (Author abstract)