NCJ Number
156442
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (Summer 1995) Pages: 327-342
Date Published
1995
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article demonstrates the importance of temporal-spatial variability in the distribution of victimization.
Abstract
The author applies the concept of crime flux, i.e., the interaction between victim-prevalence and victimization-concentration, to two-wave victim survey data from two communities. Crime flux assists in applying a perspective that specifically incorporates a focus upon change in the distribution of crime. By doing so, the author hopes to place distributional concepts in a more central position in the analysis of crime data and the evaluation of crime control policy. The conventional crime rate is composed of two different entities, the number of acts counted as crimes as a ratio to the number of persons in a population. However, one should not too easily conclude that, because people commit crime more people can be expected to commit more crime. Underlying such an assumption is an emergent theory about rates of offending, and possibly about rates of victimization. This paper describes and illustrates the beginnings of an alternative emergent theory about rates of victimization, and possibly offending, which takes as its starting point a deconstruction of the conventional crime rate into some more interesting and meaningful indicators, with possibly more utility for both criminological theory and the analysis of crime policy. Footnotes, tables, references