Crime behaviours and distance travelled in homicides and rapes

We explored (1) distances between home and offence in homicides and rapes; (2) whether these distances differed from each other; and (3) whether offence features were associated with distances. The sample consisted of solved homicides (N = 40) and rapes (N = 37) from Finland with co‐ordinates for offence and offender home locations and information on crime features. Empirical models of incident density as a function of distance were estimated using CrimeStat III (Levine, 2004). Most of the distances were short displaying distance decay. Homicide median distance was 0.85km (Inter Quartile Range (IQR) = 0.13–7.69km) and rape median distance 2.44km (IQR = 0.83–6.96km) from perpetrators' home location. These distances differed significantly (Mann‐Whitney U = 543.0, p < 0.045). It was possible to identify crime features that were correlated with distances in both offence types. Spatial Behaviour Indices combining crime feature information correlated r_s = 0.77 with distance in homicides and r_s = 0.72 in rapes. Identifying theoretical constructs for understanding links between different crime features instead of looking at them in isolation is important. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.