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When Does a Drug Market Become a Drug Market? Finding the Boundaries of Illicit Event Concentrations

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Crime Modeling and Mapping Using Geospatial Technologies

Part of the book series: Geotechnologies and the Environment ((GEOTECH,volume 8))

Abstract

The difficulties of forming valid measurements of social phenomena have been well documented in social science research (Blalock 1971; Denton and O’Malley 1999; Murphy and Arroyo 2000). As the concept under study becomes more abstract, so too does its measurement. The spatial world is no exception to this problem as we frequently rely on convenient spatial boundaries such as census areas to compartmentalize a phenomenon in a meaningful way. In this chapter we illustrate this problem through the conceptualization and operationalization of drug markets. After we have explained some of the nuances of drug market construction and ‘­creation’ in detail, we argue that many of the current measurements used to spatially define them are subject to validity issues. We therefore propose a hierarchical clustering methodology that provides a more refined indicator of market activity. We conclude with a summary of implications for crime analysts, police resource allocation, and theory testing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    However while it is usual to count a crime incident as 1.0 for the purposes of scaling with the weighting factor, it is possible to create crime hotspot maps based on other characteristics of the crime, such as the value of property stolen. The inverse distance weight in this case would be scaled against the value of the good stolen to create a map showing hotspots of property value lost.

  2. 2.

    Some analysts determine the dimensions of a crime hotspot simply on the basis of a change in color in the choropleth map classification system. Given the ease with which these can be manipulated with modern software, this approach is most definitely not recommended if a more robust statistical analysis is desired.

  3. 3.

    Other measurements can be used to define the threshold such as the minimum distance and maximum distance. See D’Andrade (1978).

  4. 4.

    We use the abbreviation Nnh throughout the chapter for continuity with the CrimeStat manual.

  5. 5.

    The median length of a street segment in Philadelphia is 277 ft. Using a buffer a little under this size would theoretically mean that any incident within 200 ft of a drug market’s boundary is attributable to the dynamics of that drug market’s immediate block.

  6. 6.

    Buffers were applied to the merged clusters for visual clarity. The decision to apply a buffer as well as considerations of which order clusters they should be applied should be guided by practicality and the theoretical interests of the research at hand.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

    Lallen Johnson

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jerry H. Ratcliffe

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  1. Lallen Johnson
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  2. Jerry H. Ratcliffe
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Correspondence to Lallen Johnson .

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  1. , Department of Geography & Anthropology, Louisiana State University, E104 Howe-Russell Geoscience Bldg., Baton Rouge, 70803, USA

    Michael Leitner

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Johnson, L., Ratcliffe, J.H. (2013). When Does a Drug Market Become a Drug Market? Finding the Boundaries of Illicit Event Concentrations. In: Leitner, M. (eds) Crime Modeling and Mapping Using Geospatial Technologies. Geotechnologies and the Environment, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4997-9_2

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