Assessing Drug Crime Concentrations Across Types of Rural and Urban Areas

Crime is highly concentrated in a small percentage of micro-places, such as street segments. Research indicates that drug crimes might show even higher spatial concentration levels than property and violent crimes. Similarly, studies have shown that hot spots policing interventions for drug crimes are more effective than for other crimes. However, what we know about drug crime concentrations in micro-places is based almost exclusively on urban areas. Differences in crime concentrations in micro-places between rural and urban areas might, in turn, impact the effectiveness and transferability of common intervention strategies. This study addresses these issues by assessing drug crime concentrations in micro-places across diverse geographic area types (i.e., small cities, suburban areas, small towns, touristic, and rural areas). Adapting recent methodological advancements that allow for accurately assessing spatial concentrations for rare events, the study shows that drug crimes are, overall, highly spatially concentrated and can show even higher levels of concentration in some types of less urbanized areas.