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Human mobility in large cities as a proxy for crime

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Listed:
  • Carlos Caminha
  • Vasco Furtado
  • Tarcisio H C Pequeno
  • Caio Ponte
  • Hygor P M Melo
  • Erneson A Oliveira
  • José S Andrade Jr.

Abstract

We investigate at the subscale of the neighborhoods of a highly populated city the incidence of property crimes in terms of both the resident and the floating population. Our results show that a relevant allometric relation could only be observed between property crimes and floating population. More precisely, the evidence of a superlinear behavior indicates that a disproportional number of property crimes occurs in regions where an increased flow of people takes place in the city. For comparison, we also found that the number of crimes of peace disturbance only correlates well, and in a superlinear fashion too, with the resident population. Our study raises the interesting possibility that the superlinearity observed in previous studies [Bettencourt et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 7301 (2007) and Melo et al., Sci. Rep. 4, 6239 (2014)] for homicides versus population at the city scale could have its origin in the fact that the floating population, and not the resident one, should be taken as the relevant variable determining the intrinsic microdynamical behavior of the system.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Caminha & Vasco Furtado & Tarcisio H C Pequeno & Caio Ponte & Hygor P M Melo & Erneson A Oliveira & José S Andrade Jr., 2017. "Human mobility in large cities as a proxy for crime," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0171609
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0171609
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    Cited by:

    1. Baomin Dong & Peter H Egger & Yibei Guo, 2020. "Is poverty the mother of crime? Evidence from homicide rates in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Amy E. Nivette & Renee Zahnow & Raul Aguilar & Andri Ahven & Shai Amram & Barak Ariel & María José Arosemena Burbano & Roberta Astolfi & Dirk Baier & Hyung-Min Bark & Joris E. H. Beijers & Marcelo Ber, 2021. "A global analysis of the impact of COVID-19 stay-at-home restrictions on crime," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(7), pages 868-877, July.
    3. Cohen, Tom & Jones, Peter, 2020. "Technological advances relevant to transport – understanding what drives them," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 80-95.

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