ABSTRACT
Although the individual and “macro” units of place such as the community have long been a focus of research and theory regarding social problems, only recently have scholars begun to explore crime and other antisocial behavior at very small “micro” units of geography. The roots of such approaches can be found in the efforts of scholars to identify the relationship between specific aspects of urban design (Jeffery 1971) or urban architecture (Newman 1972) and antisocial behavior, but broadened to take into account a much larger set of characteristics of physical space and criminal opportunity (e.g., Brantingham and Brantingham 1975). These studies drew important distinctions between the specific location of antisocial behavior and the larger geographical area (such as neighborhood, community, police beat, or city) that surrounds it.
