Spatial patterns of sexual offences in Austin, Texas
The crime and place literature has consistently emphasized the importance of understanding spatial patterns of crime using increasingly smaller spatial units of analysis. Despite a growing number of studies using this perspective, very few have investigated sexual offences specifically. The current study uses police event data to investigate the spatial distribution of sexual offences from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018, in the city of Austin, Texas (N=1381). After disaggregating offences, first by victim age (child versus adult) and then by type of sexual act (penetration, sexual contact, and sexual non-contact), three measures of spatial clustering, kernel density analyses, and a spatial point pattern test were used. Findings indicate that sexual offences perpetrated against children and adults were spatially concentrated but the degree to which they clustered depended on the type of sexual act committed. Spatial point pattern findings suggest that the street segments (and intersections) affected by sexual crime differed according to the nature of the sexual act committed. Implications for situational crime prevention and policing are discussed.