A Geographic Analysis Of Crime Rate In Southwestern Michigan: 1967·1973

In the last five years the study of the spatial dynamics of crime has become an important subfield of the geographic discipline. Numerous, well known studies have appeared, written by geographers and non-geographers alike, dealing with the geography of crime in general or with specific areal units.' While this abundance of research has been fruitful, it has, nonetheless, been haphazard. An attempt to remedy this situation was recently put forward by Phillips, who has identified several well defined research frontiers open to geographers of crime.2 Suggested by Phillips are four areas in which geographers should concentrate their crime research efforts: "distribution of offenses, patterns of crime incidence and victimization rates, the journey to crime, and the mental maps of criminals. "3