Criminal directionality and the structure of urban form

Spatial criminology has three interrelated elements: place, distance, and direction. Though directionality has had theoretical support for many years, very few empirical verifications of this component of crime have emerged. In this article, we investigate the strength of directionality by comparing a simulated randomized dataset and a large incident-based dataset of repeat offenders. We find strong evidence for a strong presence of directionality in criminal spatial decision-making. This aspect of the spatiality of crime must be considered in any attempts to understand the aetiology of crime.

► We use a simulated data set and a large incident-based data set to investigate the strength of directional bias in crime trips.
► A directional bias definitely exists with the strength of that bias depending on the structure of urban form.
► Municipalities with fewer attraction nodes exhibit a stronger directional bias.