of Crime in Bangor GIS in Geography Class June 2007 Spatial & Temporal Patterns

Crime, Age of Population & Location of Schools

Crime, Age & Schools Crime is more prevalent in areas where there is a higher percentage of year olds. More than half of residential crime was committed within a 500m buffer of schools. This accounts for about a fourth of all of the crime in Bangor. Group 1, Jen and Sarah

Crime & Streetlights

Crime & Street Lights Crime was more prevalent in areas without ‘standard’ street lights Downtown Bangor: City Hall, Bangor Public Library, Park Street, etc. Bangor Gardens, Capehart Night time residential burglaries were most frequent between pm

Crime & Pawnshops

Group 3 Sam and Lauren Crime and Pawnshops Did not find evidence of spatial relationship between distance of pawn shops and intensity of burglaries Found that burglaries were most frequent on Friday and Saturdays

Crime, Trailer Parks & Female HH

All Crimes

Group 4 Abby,Brittany, Abbe-Jaye Crime, Trailer Parks & Female HH Found few burglaries within 500 meter buffer around trailer parks Found little evidence supporting hypothesis of higher burglaries in areas with higher percentage of female head of households Burglaries seemed to occur most frequently between 1pm-6pm

Crime & Land Use

Time Series

Group 5 Josh, Mel and Chris Crime and Land Use Found a higher occurrence of burglaries within the commercial areas of Bangor, especially within the downtown area, where the buildings are closer together. The crimes are concentrated in highly dense residential areas and on commercial areas.

Crime, Parks & Income

Map 6 Dan and Mike Crime, Parks & Income Believed crimes in Bangor would be more heavily focused on the areas in Bangor that had a lower household income and that more crimes would occur within an area of a park. We digitized the 31 parks in Bangor in order to see how the crimes related to the parks. We created a 200 meter buffer around the parks and then find the number of crimes that occurred within the park buffer. Found that 41% of all crimes in Bangor occurred within 200 meters of the parks. Our hypothesis was slightly incorrect, but keep in mind that the buffered areas only accounted for 13% of the total area of Bangor. Found that there wasn’t much relationship between crimes and income. However, we did find that the higher income areas did not have as much crime, which proved our second hypothesis to be incorrect.

Crime, Teen Centers & Shelters

Location of Teen Centers & Shelters

Crime and Teen Shelters Weekdays

Crime and Teen Shelters Weekends

Group 7 Marcus, David and Jesse Crime, Teen Centers & Shelters Compared the crime in Bangor to the location of the teen centers and shelters. Also wanted to examine burglaries within 400 meters of teen centers on weekdays (Monday- Friday) and weekends (Saturday and Sunday). Found little or no correlation between burglaries and teen centers/shelters versus the rest of Bangor. Found only 16% of burglaries occur within the 400 meter buffers. Found the rate of burglaries on weekends is equal to the crime rate during the week. The buffers around the YMCA, YWCA, and the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter had the highest crime rate. However,all are located downtown, where the densest burglaries activity occur in Bangor anyway.

Crime & Casinos

Group 8 Layne and Crystal Casinos and Crime Examined area around Hollywood Slots Casino, over 4 years ( ). Found temporary increase in the amount of burglaries after the casino was under construction from 2004 to its opening in 2005, but gradually returned to an 'average' level in Examined patterns of burglaries by month in highest year (2005) but found no definitive pattern.

Crime within a 3000 feet buffer of Hollywood Slots Crime within a 3000 feet buffer of Hollywood Slots 2003 through 2006 Hollywood Slots opened in Nov 4, 2005

Sources City of Bangor Police Dept Maine Office of GIS Verizon Telephone book US Census Bangor Hydro Electric Company City of Bangor Many thanks to Assistant Chief Peter Arno for his support and continuing interest. Many thanks to Bill Parker for his insight into crime analysis and help.

Crime in Bangor Spatial & Temporal Patterns See Slide Notes for Additional Information