Drug crime urban activity pattern : the locational choice of drug crime in relation to street type and land use

Abstract

Crime like drug dealing in public places of cities is a widespread phenomenon. This paper reports on the findings from the case study on illegal drug crime in one of the prime locations of Narayanganj City Corporation. Physical location of 216 incidents of illegal drug dealing is analyzed here with respect to spatial configuration of streets and corresponding land use. Main focus is to test the hypothesis supported by the Crime Pattern theory that drug dealing is more likely to happen in areas which are near streets or places that triggers a flow of good number of people at a regular basis. Basic tool used in this paper is Space Syntax methodology. Integration (HH), control and weighted optimal local choice levels of streets at reported locations are considered while using the space syntax methodology. Aim of the paper is to identify the spatial attribute of drug crime locations for helping urban planners, designers and crime control authorities to identify crime zones easily for acting proactively rather than reactive. Results shows, street accessibility, proximity to specific land use, the number of intersections that need to be crossed to reach a street at a local level has a significant effect on location choice of drug dealing. Rational choices (to movement) of streets and mixed-use residential areas with close proximity to poorly integrated streets show more vulnerability for becoming selling point of drugs. Also the streets having drug crime record show an inverse relation between streets control value and weighted choice value at local level. These results indicate that spatial attributes while explored can help to control the potential crimes in cities and create a responsive environment in social terms.