ABSTRACT
Though neighborhood-level and place-based approaches to understanding and preventing crime are often distinct lines of inquiry, this chapter suggests that studying crime places does not have to exclude the possibility of neighborhood influences. Building upon work on multilevel opportunity structures, the embeddedness of places in larger neighborhood opportunity contexts is emphasized, and a “place in neighborhood” (PIN) theory is presented. PIN theory incorporates neighborhood- and place-level influences, including propositions suggesting that neighborhood crime market characteristics can interact with place-level opportunity characteristics to influence crime at places. The potential utility of the PIN approach for understanding the spatial distribution of crime is illustrated using the case of open-air drug dealing. It is also suggested that the PIN approach might be helpful in understanding crime-related outcomes beyond the distribution of crime, including the severity of crime.
