Title

When Does A Drug Market Become A Drug Market? Finding The Boundaries Of Illicit Event Concentrations

Keywords

Conceptualization; Drug market; Hierarchical clustering; Operationalization; Validity

Abstract

The difficulties of forming valid measurements of social phenomena have been well documented in social science research (Blalock 1971; Denton and O’Malley 1999; Murphy and Arroyo 2000). As the concept under study becomes more abstract, so too does its measurement. The spatial world is no exception to this problem as we frequently rely on convenient spatial boundaries such as census areas to compartmentalize a phenomenon in a meaningful way. In this chapter we illustrate this problem through the conceptualization and operationalization of drug markets. After we have explained some of the nuances of drug market construction and ‘creation’ in detail, we argue that many of the current measurements used to spatially define them are subject to validity issues. We therefore propose a hierarchical clustering methodology that provides a more refined indicator of market activity. We conclude with a summary of implications for crime analysts, police resource allocation, and theory testing.

Publication Date

1-1-2013

Publication Title

Crime Modeling and Mapping Using Geospatial Technologies

Number of Pages

25-48

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4997-9_2

Socpus ID

85019621285 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85019621285

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