Spatial Analysis of Residential Burglaries in London, Ontario

This paper focuses on analyzing the spatial pattern of residential burglaries in London, Ontario. It discusses the problems associated with using geo-referenced data on residential burglary incidents. The relative risk ratio is applied as a measure of the intensity of residential burglaries. The highest relative risks of residential burglaries are found in the core area of the city and the risks tend to decline with increasing distance from the city center. Another distinctive feature of the spatial pattern of residential burglaries is the west-east division. The east section of the city is characterized by higher risks of residential burglaries. The relationships between the spatial pattern and the contextual neighborhood variables are analyzed using the standard (global) multiple regression and the geographically weighted regression. It is demonstrated that the spatial pattern of residential burglaries is significantly related to the spatial patterns of socio-economic characteristics. Also, there are significant local variations in the relationships between the relative risk of residential burglary and the socio-economic characteristics of neighborhoods in London, Ontario.