The Roads Between Nodes: How Travel Paths Affect Burglary Location Choices

Crime pattern theory stresses the importance of offender activity spaces for understanding where crime occurs. Activity spaces comprise both frequently visited places (nodes) and the routinely travelled paths that connect them. Although previous research showed that offenders indeed often commit crimes near their activity nodes, little is known about the extent to which the paths between these nodes feature in their crime location choices. This study examines whether offenders favour targets that are close to these paths, as well as those close to activity nodes.