Spatiotemporal relationship between crime, alcohol and deprivation in Scotland

Abstract

A large body of literature exists concerning the relationship between crime and the concentration of onand off-sale alcohol outlets, while other studies explored the relationship between alcohol consumption and socioeconomic deprivation. This study connects these three elements to investigate the spatial and the temporal variation in the relationship between crime, alcohol and deprivation in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. Considering the society as dynamic over space the technique chosen is the Geographically Weighted Regression, while the time component of the study is addressed by comparing datasets from two different years. The results elicit a positive relationship between alcohol and crime that varies spatially, following patterns linked with the outlet density and transportation network. The contribution of alcohol outlets to violent crimes varies temporally, with opposite trends in the two cities, expressions of different drinking behaviours. Finally, the on-sale outlets appear to have a stronger impact on violent crimes compared with off-sale. The outcomes of geographically-centred longitudinal1 studies are key in informing the policy level and enhancing the efficacy of tailored consumption-control and prevention measures.