RT Article
T1 When Do Offenders Commit Crime? An Analysis of Temporal Consistency in Individual Offending Patterns
JF Journal of quantitative criminology
VO 37
IS 4
SP 863
OP 889
A1 Sleeuwen, Sabine E. M.
A2 Steenbeek, Wouter
A2 Ruiter, Stijn
LA English
YR 2021
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1776231333
AB Objectives Building on Hägerstrand’s time geography, we expect temporal consistency in individual offending behavior. We hypothesize that repeat offenders commit offenses at similar times of day and week. In addition, we expect stronger temporal consistency for crimes of the same type and for crimes committed within a shorter time span. Method We use police-recorded crime data on 28,274 repeat offenders who committed 152,180 offenses between 1996 and 2009 in the greater The Hague area in the Netherlands. We use a Monte Carlo permutation procedure to compare the overall level of temporal consistency observed in the data to the temporal consistency that is to be expected given the overall temporal distribution of crime. Results Repeat offenders show strong temporal consistency: they commit their crimes at more similar hours of day and week than expected. Moreover, the observed temporal consistency patterns are indeed stronger for offenses of the same type of crime and when less time has elapsed between the offenses, especially for offenses committed within a month after the prior offense. Discussion The results are consistent with offenders having recurring rhythms that shape their temporal crime pattern. These findings might prove valuable for improving predictive policing methods and crime linkage analysis as well as interventions to reduce recidivism.
K1 Monte Carlo permutation
K1 Hour of week
K1 Hour of day
K1 Temporal consistency
K1 Repeat Offenders
DO 10.1007/s10940-020-09470-w