Spatial Analysis Of Alcohol Outlets And Violent Crime In Boston Essay.

On an average day in 1996, there were a projected 5.3 million convicted offenders. Nearly 40% of these offenders, were using alcohol at the time of the offense for which they were imprisoned (Greenfield, 1998). There is substantial evidence that creates a link between alcohol outlets such as bars, restaurants, and liquor stores with crimes such as homicide, child abuse, aggravated assault, sexual assault, and robbery. According to Costanza  (2017) each year in the US, there are 7,756 homicides attributable to (assumed to be caused by) alcohol, and 1,269 of these occur in persons younger than 21 years old. There might or might not be a geographical relationship between alcohol outlets and violent crimes.

This research proposal aims at examining spatially the relationship between the availability of alcohol and violent crime levels across Boston urban neighborhoods. The research will contribute to and extend the sociology tradition of crime that aims to define the nature of the alcohol nexus.

Alcohol is a major contributor to violence and criminal activities. Excessive drinking leads to lower inhibitions, leads to increases aggressive behavior, and impairs someone’s judgment. Currently, there is an increased rise in crime rates and violence caused by alcohol throughout the country. Based on this concern, there is a need to analyze the spatial relationship between the availability of alcohol and crimes so that appropriate measures can be taken.

Previous studies have focused on victim and offender as the source of data in analyzing alcohol and crime relationships, while such research has contributed to the understanding of crime, there has been little research focusing on alcohol outlets and crime rates. The proposal is therefore aimed at filling the gap in understanding the relationship between alcohol and crime rates as well as other factors such as geographic and police station distribution.

• What is the relationship between alcohol outlets and crime in Boston?
• How are the crime rates distributed in Boston?
• How are police stations distributed within Boston?

Previous studies have tried to investigate the relationship between alcohol outlet density and alcohol consumption. Huckle T (2018) examined the relationship between social and physical environments alcohol consumptions patterns by the age of 12-17 years, the results from the study showed that alcohol outlet density is highly associated with high alcohol consumption among teenagers.

Cross-sectional research conducted by Connor J ( 2019) found that there are positive relationships between alcohol outlet density and individual drinking habits. The closer the alcohol outlet to the individual the higher the alcohol consumption rate. Thus, the alcohol outlet that was close to the university, witnessed a high alcohol consumption rate attributed to the presence of university students. The study also revealed a significant relationship between unlicensed bars and high the prevalence of excessive drinking.

In a peer-review article from New Zealand, the researchers found that

there were significant negative associations between access to licensed alcohol outlets and the incidence of serious violent offenses.

This also included hotspots of areas that had greater levels of violent crimes based on licensed and unlicensed outlets.

The new language presented that seems to be predominant in all articles that relate alcohol and violent crimes is spatial linkage. Spatial data linkage at times encompasses a method of joint or overlap of more than one set of spatial units.

Below data will be used in conducting the research.

From the above datasets, we will be able to analyze the relationship between alcohol license data and crime incidents, police station data will help identify the relationship between the occurrence of crimes and proximity to the police station.

Administrative boundaries are essential in generating the map of the study area, the road network is crucial in linking the police station and crime scenes.

Cross-sectional analysis of alcohol outlets’ distance to areas where violent crimes were committed for 2021 for police stations within the state of Boston.

 With Geographical Information systems I can obtain locations authorized to sell alcohol through license permits and calculate the distance of travel from locations where violent crimes were committed. While also accessing crime data to show if the offender was under the influence at the time of the crime.

Hot spot analysis will be done by ArcGIS to show the distribution of crimes related to alcohol within Boston. 

This can be a similar diagram I can use for this research topic. 

There would be a minimum of two layers and maps, to begin with, as more data and research is included this can be increased. 

There will also be a minimum of two tables that will include total block, size in square miles, and total outlet access.

Another language that was introduced while researching is clusters of violence. There were some visual representations in another article of clusters of violence in Ohio linking alcohol outlets and violence with a GIS system (Carroll, 2017). It used a form of color mapping, with focal points of areas where there are 10 or more alcohol access points within a block radius.

A summary of the steps that will be undertaken is as below.

• Data collection-this involves downloading and cleaning the data to be used.
• Creation of Boston map in ArcGIS
• Plotting of crime points, police stations, and alcohol license points along with their attributes.
• Spatial analysis of crime in relation to the other variables e.g., crime and alcohol points
• Creation of thematic maps based on.
  • Types of crimes
  • Locations authorized to sell alcohol
  • Hot spots Map
  • Distance traveled from the police station to the location where the crime took place.
  • Area wise distribution of crimes

From the hot spot analysis, I expect to see how crimes are distributed within Boston. Through map visualization, I foresee a situation where crimes will be concentrated in low-income or slum areas within Boston with reduced crimes in middle to large-income residential places.  I will also be able to identify the common type of crimes committed, the time, and even the people committing such crimes, either if they are youth or older people. I will also be able to understand the relationship between police station availability and crime activity. I anticipate seeing a scenario where they are low crimes committed close to the police station and increased crimes as one moves away from the police station.

I expect to see high crime rates in the regions where there are no alcohol licensing and a reduction of crimes in areas where alcohol consumption is licensed.

The target audience for the research will be the police department of Boston because police are concerned about law-and-order enforcement. The findings from the research will be helpful to them in reducing crimes within Boston as they will be able to identify where criminal activities are concentrated. The results will also help police in closing unlicensed bars and alcohol outlets within the region.

Another target audience is the government of Boston in charge of the police department, this is because the research will unveil the distribution of police stations in Boston and the relationships with the criminal activities, thus the department will be able to identify the regions where police stations need to be installed to ensure crime rates are reduced.

References

Carroll, A. M. (2017). A Spatial Analysis of Alcohol Outlet Density and Abandoned Properties on Violent Crime in Paterson New Jersey.

Connor J, K. K. (2019). Alcohol outlet density and alcohol-related harm. Proceedings of the Australasian Epidemiological Association; August.

Greenfield, L. A. (1998). Alcohol and Crime: An Analysis of National Data on the.

Huckle T, H. J. (2018). Huckle T, Huakau J, Sweetser P, Huisman O, Casswell S. Density of alcohol outlets and teenage drinking: living in an allogenic environment is associated with higher consumption in a metropolitan setting. Addiction.

E. Costanza, W. B. (2017). alcohol availability and violent crime rates: a spatial analysis.