Opportunity, Environmental Characteristics, and Crime: An Analysis of Auto Theft Patterns (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Levy develops a model to identify the opportunity and environmental characteristics of repeat victimization of auto theft. At the community level, locations of apartments, bars, and auto repair shops create increased opportunity for auto theft. At the site level, she matches repeat auto theft locations to those that experienced a single victimization. She collects data on W.A.L.L.S. (Watchers, Activity Nodes, Location, Lighting, and Security Devices) variables. Location and lighting were the most significant variables. Watchers and security devices were related to repeat victimization in residential areas, but not commercial areas. These two methodologies together provide crime analysts with a tool that can significantly estimate opportunity as well as identify environmental characteristics related to auto theft. TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 6 Introduction......Page 10 Importance of Research......Page 12 Ecological Theory......Page 16 Community-level Scholarship......Page 21 Opportunity Literature......Page 38 Pattern Theory......Page 47 Hot Spots......Page 50 Repeat Victimization......Page 54 Introduction......Page 60 Site-level Scholarship......Page 66 5 – A Multi-level Investigation of Auto Theft......Page 92 Community-level Research......Page 93 Site-level Research......Page 104 The Models – Auto Theft in Lexington-Fayette......Page 116 Database Description......Page 134 Community-level Discussion......Page 164 Site-level Discussion......Page 173 City Selection......Page 186 Community-level Analysis......Page 188 Site-level Analysis......Page 190 Review of Limitations......Page 192 Lessons......Page 194 Practical Issues......Page 200 Using W.A.L.L.S. and the Opportunity Structure for other Crimes......Page 204 The Future of Geographic Analyses......Page 205 The Future of Crime Prevention......Page 206 References......Page 208 L......Page 228 W......Page 229