Permeability, space syntax, and the patterning of residential burglaries in urban China

There are a wide variety of explanations for reasons why crime clusters at particular locations. They reflect the range of factors that influence where crime incidents occur. In this article, we focus on the influence of the space syntax and in particular the permeability of the street network on the location of residential burglaries in Wuhan, China. We first review existing research to summarize the different approaches being used to analyze the impacts of the configuration of street networks on crime and the findings about that have so far emerged. Then we analyze residential burglaries at the street segment level with considerable variation in street network configuration and socioeconomic factors. In the conclusion of the paper we discuss the implications of the statistical output.