A Critical Appraisal of Ceccato & Uittenbogaard’s (2014) Space-Time Dynamics of Crime in Transport Nodes
Space-Time Dynamics of Crime in Transport Nodes by Ceccato and Uittenbogaard (2014) analyzed the spatial-temporal variations of crime in underground stations in Stockholm, Sweden. Using a framework drawn from time geography, routine activity theory and defensible space theory, Ceccato and Uittenbogaard (2014) hoped to validate two hypotheses: (1) that crime in underground stations would reflect the temporal variations in human activity at various time scales (hourly, daily, weekly and seasonally); and (2) that the vulnerability of transport nodes to crime varies in time and space.
Using ordinary least squares regression and Sheffe’s test the authors found that crime incidents were time dependent based on the time of day, week or year. And that different types of crime occurred during different time periods. The authors various results agreed with the aforementioned crime theories (routine theory, time geography and defensible space theory), validating the results of their study. However at times the paper itself seemed in-concise and convoluted. For these reasons we rated the paper a 7 out of 10.