ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the spatial distributions from the residential location of offenders. The links between locus and residence are an essential component in criminal activity and can contribute vital insights into the concentration of offending in particular environments. Gross offender rates based on official aggregations suffer from an additional difficulty: offenders are usually processed in the police jurisdictions where the offence was committed and not where they live. Comparative studies of the spatial distribution of offenders by both age and sex are rare. Adult male offenders tend to be concentrated in inner-city areas, those where multi-occupation of dwellings is common — the so-called ‘zone in transition’. One possible explanation for the differential distribution of offenders in cities is offered by the role of criminal networks in the transmission of criminal experience. Despite the fact that race is a key variable in studies of urban social segregation, there is a dearth of evidence on the residential distribution of offenders by race.
