The Influence of Weather on Local Geographical Patterns of Police Calls for Service

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Abstract

The effect of weather elements on the incidence of different types of crime has been the focus of a number of research studies. However, the detailed geographical dimension of this relationship has been largely ignored. The aim of this paper is to broaden the research on weather and crime to consider the effect of weather parameters on the spatial arrangement of crime within an urban area of the UK. A novel combination of techniques that are capable of both evaluating statistically and visualising geographically the effect of weather variables on the incidence of one type of crime, namely calls for police service for disorder or disturbances, is presented. These techniques are examined in relation to the theories that have traditionally been put forward to explain such trends. We conclude that, in our study area, both temperature and humidity exert significant effects on the spatial patterning of incidents of disorder or disturbances. Rainfall, wind speed, and wind direction were found not to have a significant effect for this type of call for service. More research is needed to see how transferable these findings are to other geographical areas with different climatic regimes.

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