Running Head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE 1

Criminal justice

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Basic information

Wim Bernasco and Remco Van Dijke are the authors of the article, "do offenders avoid

offending near home?" This article was published in 2020, and it focuses on crime science

aspects. This article focuses on detail the systematic review of the buffer zone hypothesis.

Introduction

The crime frequency reduces with the distance from the offender's home. However, the

buffer zone hypothesis outlines that offenders avoid offending very close to home. This study

addresses to analyze this hypothesis validity. A buffer zone is referred to as an area of reduced

criminal activity around the offender's home.

Literature review

This research was done through the analysis of a systematic literature review of roughly four

bibliographic databases.

Levine & Lee (2013) analyzed an empirical phenomenon that the crime frequency

decreases with the offender's home distance. This article focused on journey-to-crime trips by

gender and age group for criminal offenders in Manchester, England. The results revealed that

roughly 97,429 crimes were committed in 2006 by 56,358 offenders (Levine & Lee, 2013). In

this case, the offenders' residence location and crime areas were evident. However, roughly one

in six crimes was committed by women and juveniles. The analysis outlined gender differences

in crime travel with interactions by age group, ethnicity, crime location, and co-offenders

presence. The results outlined that the simple generalization about criminal trips is suspect.
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Levine & Lee (2013) revealed that crime travel must be analyzed considering the crime type,

metropolitan structure characteristics, offender details such as age and gender.

Lenormand et al. (2016) analyzed the systematic comparison of trip distribution laws and

models. The researchers outlined that trip distribution laws are useful for the travel demand

characterization in transport and urban planning services. Likewise, the researchers revealed that

distance decay is evident in commuting, shopping, recreation trips, and other human mobility

types. The distance decay aspects are apparent in geography, economics, and urban planning

aspects. Lenormand et al. (2016) considered the gravity law where the number of trips is

assumed to be linked to the origin and destination population and decreases with the distance

(Lenormand et al. 2016). The researchers proved that these aspects are included in estimating an

individual's probability to commute from one unit to another, known as trip distribution law.

O'Leary (2011) focused on criminal distance decay aspects, which the crucial element

that a relationship exists based on several factors. The illegal distance decay is dependent on the

distance from an offender's home base to the possible target area and the likelihood that the

offender decides to offend in that area. The researcher revealed that this aspect is sufficient for

police agencies' operational effect and offender behavior models (O'Leary, 2011). The distance

decay aspect of an offender is influenced by local geography and its decision-making strategy.

O'Leary (2011) examined further the geographic patterns for residential burglary in Baltimore

County. The results proved that despite the offenses done in rural areas committed by an

offender with more considerable travel distance, it does not outline that this aspect can be

explained simply by the local population density (O'Leary, 2011).

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Turner (1969) found that index offenses were less likely to be perpetrated within a block

of juvenile offenders' residential areas. The buffer one is outlined as the reduced area of criminal

activities. The researcher outlined that a buffer zone may exist since offenders avoid offending

near their residential areas from lack of illegal chances in those areas.

Hypothesis

This article addresses the buffer zone hypothesis. The primary question is, "do offenders

avoid offending near home?"

Sample

The sampling strategy used in this research was systematic, where 33 studies were

analyzed effectively. It involved countries such as The United Kingdom, Canada, and the United

States.

Variables

The dependent variable in this study is the buffer zone, while the independent variables

included the studies' critical characteristics, which have the sample sizes of the crime. The buffer

zone was measured through analysis of the 33 lessons in identifying the crime types.

Results

The results outlined crucial attributes of roughly 33 included studies. Most studies

appeared during the last two decades, with approximately 60% between 2005 and 2014. The

United States, The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, contributed to about two-

thirds of the reviewed studies. Likewise, three out of every four analysis involved Euclidian

distance measures, and others included the Manhattan distance measures. However, street
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network measures that include the quickest travel distance were not applied. The reported

analysis outlined a wide range of sample sizes ranging from 30 to 750 000 (Bernasco & van

Dijke, 2020). The distribution displayed a strongly positively skewed with a 23,948 as mean and

median of 228. The frequency of the study's characteristics was 33.

The type of offenses revealed from the research involved robbery, rape, assault,

homicide, theft, vehicle, and burglary. Burglary recorded the highest percentage of 48.5%,

followed by rape, with a 42.4% rate (Bernasco & van Dijke, 2020). However, theft recorded the

least amount of 6.1%. The results revealed that one-third offered evidence supporting the buffer

zone, while two-thirds did not support this hypothesis (Bernasco & van Dijke, 2020). The

outcomes were unconnected to the assessed methodological study qualities.

Implications

The primary agenda of the study was to assess the buffer zone hypothesis. The hypothesis

analyzes the aspect of offenders avoiding offending very close to the residential areas. This

hypothesis was examined by performing a systematic review of the empirical literature. This

research focused on approximately 33 published studies to assess if their findings supported or

declined the hypothesis (Bernasco & van Dijke, 2020). The conclusions outlined that the

empirical evidence linked to the buffer zone hypothesis is usually feeble and unsatisfying.

Surprisingly, the research does not support the buffer zone hypothesis, where roughly 11

confirmed the view, while 22 rejected the analysis (Bernasco & van Dijke, 2020). The

assessment of the buffer zone hypothesis focused on two critical issues. Future research on the

buffer zone hypothesis might become more demanding and produce sturdier conclusions and

become useful for future systematic reviews.

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References

Bernasco, W., & van Dijke, R. (2020). Do offenders avoid offending near home? A systematic

review of the buffer zone hypothesis. Crime Science, 9, 1-10.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-020-00118-5

Lenormand, M., Bassolas, A., & Ramasco, J. J. (2016). Systematic comparison of trip

distribution laws and models. Journal of Transport Geography, 51, 158-169.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2015.12.008

Levine, N., & Lee, P. (2013). Journey-to-crime by gender and age group in Manchester,

England. In Crime modeling and mapping using geospatial technologies (pp. 145-178).

Springer, Dordrecht. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-4997-9_7

O'Leary, M. (2011). Modeling criminal distance decay. Cityscape, 161-198.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426679

Turner, S. (1969). Delinquency and distance. In T. Sellin & M. E. Wolfgang (Eds.),

Delinquency: Selected studies. New York: John Wiley