Crime Reach Analysis Within the Environmental Backcloth

The criminal propensity to commit crime is heavily influenced by surrounding environmental factors. Determining the various aspects and features within the environment that contribute to increased criminality and the scope of their impact can further the conceptualization of the environmental backcloth. To this end, a graph model of the environmental backcloth becomes a useful tool for analyzing the various elements that form the environment. By using a graph model, analytical tools from the mathematical field of Graph Theory can be applied to the environmental backcloth. In addition, various algorithms used in Social Network Analysis can be adapted and applied to this graph model. In particular, this paper explores how the concept of reach — used in Social Network Analysis to identify central actors — can be adapted and applied to a graph model of the road network of the City of Vancouver, Canada. This analysis focuses specifically on the relationship between the presence of stores and the rate of crime near a junction. A strong correlation was found between reach to stores and reach to crime demonstrating that areas with a high store presence tend to have high crime rates.