ABSTRACT
A number of interesting questions arise when one considers the matter of the relationship between the place where a delinquent lives and the place where he commits his violation of the law. How far does the delinquent live from where his offense takes place? Does the type of his offense affect that distance? And finally, does the presence of an accomplice have any effect on this relationship? It would also be interesting to compare the replies to these questions with findings of studies of distance involving adult offenders and their offenses and with studies where distance has been examined in relation to the selection of marriage partners, migration, removals, etc. This article will focus on all of these matters, using information available for certain types of delinquent events included in the research reported by Sellin and Wolfgang in their book, The Measurement of Delinquency. The events chosen were those in which offenses resulted in bodily injury to victims and/or the loss or damage to property; they represented a ten percent sample of delinquent events known to the police of Philadelphia in 1960. We shall refer to these events as index events because they were the ones which furnished the basis for the index of delinquency contributed by the authors mentioned.
