Spatial and temporal patterns of violent crime in a Brazilian state capital: A quantitative analysis focusing on micro places and small units of time. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Valente, Riccardo
• Is Part Of: Applied geography. Volume 103(2019)
• Page Start: 90
• Page End: 97
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: Violent crime -- Florianópolis -- Crime concentration -- Spatial point pattern test; Geography -- Periodicals; Human geography -- Periodicals; Human ecology -- Periodicals; 910
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2019.01.006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0143-6228

Abstract

Abstract: The present research analyses a local variation of the problem of violence in Brazil and focuses on Florianópolis, the capital of the state of Santa Catarina, long considered the flagship of security in the country, although currently seeing an increase in violent crimes. A quantitative analysis has been implemented to test whether the law of crime concentration and the assumption of spatial-temporal dissimilarity of crime events were consistent for the specific case under study. The results show that crime concentration in Florianópolis is more accentuated than even previous literature would suggest and that the degree of concentration of street robberies and homicides is temporally stable. However, the specific locations where crime took place change over time depending on temporal dimensions such as the season, day of the week, and the hour of the day. Yet, homicide spatial patterns have shown to be less sensitive to seasonal variations. Although this conclusion challenged the initial expectations derived from previous literature, it provides a meaningful explanation of current trends of violent crime in Florianópolis, which are increasingly linked to organized crime and illegal drug trade. Highlights: Crime concentration in Florianópolis is more accentuated than in other contexts. In discontinuous urban settings, geographic constraints accentuate spatial concentration. Street robberies' hotspots change across space depending on the time of the day or the year. Spatial patterns of homicides appeared to be less influenced by seasonal variations.