Occurrence Factors of Street Crime in Unmarried Single Women Concentrated Areas Using Spatial Regression Analysis

This study analyzes the factors influencing violent crimes and sexual offenses on streets in Unmarried Single Women Concentrated Areas, focusing on Nowon-gu, Seoul. The main findings are as follows. First, Moran's I analysis confirmed spatial auto-correlation for both violent crimes and sexual offenses. High-high (HH) clusters were identified in semi-residential areas with high pedestrian traffic, such as around subway stations and universities, indicating major crime hotspots. Second, spatial regression analysis identified common significant factors affecting violent and sexual crimes: the proportion of unmarried single women households (+), the number of entertainment facilities (+), multi-family housing (-), apartment buildings (-), low-rise buildings (-), mid-rise buildings (+), and high-rise buildings (+). Meanwhile, the proportion of unmarried single women negatively (-) impacted violent crimes, reflecting the positive effects of environmental improvement activities, such as Women’s Safe Pathways. Third, sexual offenses were significantly influenced by the density of entertainment facilities and building types. Row houses were found to have a positive impact on reducing sexual offenses due to their structural characteristics favoring natural surveillance, highlighting the importance of residential environmental features. This study contributes to expanding the literature by conducting a detailed analysis of street-level crimes based on real data in a college-dense area. The findings offer policy implications for tailored CPTED strategies and provide guidance for future research addressing psychological and behavioral factors of single women households. Future research should investigate the behavioral and psychological characteristics of unmarried single women through surveys and develop tailored solutions linking these insights to environmental factors identified in this study.