An Examination of Spatial Differences between Migrant and Native Offenders in Committing Violent Crimes in a Large Chinese City

Abstract

Immigrants and natives are generally comparable in committing violent crimes in many Western cities. However, little is known about spatial differences between internal migrant offenders and native offenders in committing violence in contemporary urban China. To address this gap, this research aims to explore spatial variation in violent crimes committed by migrant and native offenders, and examine different effects of ambient population, crime attractors, crime generators, and offender anchor points on these crimes. Offender data, mobile phone data, and points-of-interest (POI) data are combined to explain the crime patterns of these offenders who committed offenses and were arrested from 2012 to 2016 in a large Chinese city by using box maps and negative binomial regression models. It is demonstrated that migrant and native violent crimes vary enormously across space. Ambient population is only positively related to migrant violent crimes. Crime attractors and generators have more significant and stronger correlations with migrant violent crimes, while offender anchor points have a stronger association with native violent crimes. The results reveal that migrant offenders tend to be attracted by larger amounts of people and more affected by crime attractors and generators than native offenders.