Abstract
Proceeding on the assumptions that the day of the week is the best predictor of the levels of calls for police service, that calls for police service emanate from the pursuit of routine activities, and that weather influences routine activities, this paper examines how the expected change in the level of calls for service for a particular day of the week in Chicago is altered with the arrival and passage of weather fronts. Fronts taking 1 day to pass Chicago have a broader effect on the changes in calls across the days of the week than fronts taking 2 days in passage. On the whole, the 2-day fronts significantly alter calls for service during the weekdays but not on the weekend, while 1-day fronts significantly alter calls on both weekdays and weekends. In general, cold fronts decrease calls for service, and warm fronts increase calls for service.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahrens, C. D. (1988).Meteorology Today, West, St. Paul, Minn.
Alsop, T. (1987). Seasons. In Oliver, J. E. and Fairbridge, R. W. (eds.),The Encyclopedia of Climatology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, pp. 755–761.
Anderson, C. A. (1989). Temperature and Aggression: Ubiquitous effects of heat on occurrence of human violence.Psychol. Bull. 106: 74–96.
Anderson, C. A., and Anderson, D. C. (1984). Ambient temperature and violent crime: Tests of the linear and curvilinear hypotheses.J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 46: 91–97.
Bercal, T. (1970). Calls for police assistance: Consumer demands for government service.Am. Behav. Sci. 13: 680–691.
Blalock, H. M. (1972).Social Statistics, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Cawley, D. F., and Miron, H. J. (1977).Managing Patrol Operations, University Research, Washington, D.C.
Chapin, F. S., Jr. (1974).Human Activity Patterns in the City, John Wiley & Sons, New York.
Chiu, J. S. Y., and Chang, S. K. (1978). Forecasting calls for police service in Seattle.J. Police Sci. Admin. 6: 105–114.
Cohen, L. E., and Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach.Am. Sociol. Rev. 44: 588–608.
Dexter, E. G. (1904).Weather Influences: An Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meteorological Conditions, Macmillan, New York.
Fairbridge, R. (1987). Weather. In Oliver, J. E., and Fairbridge, R. W. (eds.),The Encyclopedia of Climatology, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, p. 922.
Gay, W. G., et al. (1977).Improving Patrol Productivity, Vol. I, NILECJ, Washington, D.C.
Gedzelman, S. D. (1985). Atmospheric circulation systems. In Houghton, D. D. (ed.),Handbook of Applied Meteorology, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 3–61.
Goldstein, H. (1977).Policing a Free Society, Ballinger, Cambridge, Mass.
Hale, C. D., and Garmire, B. L. (1977). Patrol administration. In Garmire, B. (ed.),Local Government Police Management, International City Management Association, Washington, D.C, pp. 161–182.
Harries, K. D., and Stadler, S. J. (1983). Determinism revisited: Assault and heat stress in Dallas, 1980.Environ. Behav. 15: 235–256.
Harries, K. D., and Stadler, S. J. (1986). Aggravated assault and the urban system: Dallas, 1980–81.J. Environ. Syst. 15(3): 243–253.
Harries, K. D., and Stadler, S. J. (1988). Heat and violence: New findings from Dallas field data, 1980–1981.J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 18: 129–138.
Hawley, A. H. (1950).Human Ecology: A Theory of Community Structure, Ronald Press, New York.
Heller, N. B., and Markland, R. E. (1970). A climatological model for forecasting the demand for police service.J. Res. Crime Delinq. 7: 167–176.
Larson, R. C., and Cahn, M. F. (1985).Synthesizing and Extending the Results of Police Patrol Studies, NIJ, Washington, D.C.
LeBeau, J. L. (1988). Comment—weather and crime: Trying to make social sense of a physical process.Just. Q. 5: 301–309.
LeBeau, J. L., and Castellano, T. C. (1987). The routine activities approach: An inventory and critique. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, St. Louis, Mo., March.
LeBeau, J. L., and Langworthy, R. H. (1986). The linkages between routine activities, weather, and calls for police services.J. Police Sci. Admin. 14(2): 137–145.
McEwen, J. T. (1982).Managing Patrol Operations Field Test: Final Evaluation Report, Research Management Associates, Alexandria, Va.
McEwen, J. T. (1984).An Evaluation Report on Differential Police Response, Research Management Associates, Alexandria, Va.
McPheters, L. R., and Strenge, W. B. (1974). Some law enforcement operations implications of crime seasonality.Long Range Plan. 7: 57–59.
Meyer, J. C. (1976). Empirical analysis of police service tasks: Antecedent for management planning.J. Police Sci. Admin. 4: 264–273.
Michelson, W. (1971). Some like it hot: Social participation and environmental use as functions of season.Am. J. Sociol. 76: 1072–1083.
Neter, J., and Wasserman, W. (1974).Applied Linear Statistical Models: Regression, Analysis of Variance, and Experimental Designs, Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, Il.
Persinger, M. A. (1980).The Weather Matrix and Human Behavior, Praeger, New York.
Reiss, A. J. (1971).The Police and the Public, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.
Robinson, J. P. (1977).How Americans Use Time: A Social-Psychological Analysis of Everyday Behavior, Praeger, New York.
Rotton, J. (1986). Determinism redux: Climate and cultural correlates of violence.Environ. Behav. 18(3): 346–368.
Rotton, J., and Frey, J. (1985). Air pollution, weather, and violent crimes: concomitant time-series analysis of archival data.J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 49: 1207–1220.
Sells, S. B., and Will, D. P. (1971). Accidents, police incident, and weather: A further study of the city of Fort Worth, Texas, 1968. Technical Report No. 15, Group Psychology Branch, Office of Naval Research and Institute of Behavioral Research, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.
Sherman, L. W., Gartin, P. R. and Buerger, M. E. (1989). Hot spots of predatory crime: Routine activities and the criminology of place.Criminology 27: 27–55.
Sommers, P., and Moos, R. H. (1976). Weather and human behavior. In Moos, R. H. (ed.),The Human Context: Environmental Determinants of Behavior, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 73–107.
Spring, J. V., and Block, C. R. (1988). Finding crime hot spots: Experiments in the identification of high crime areas. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society.
Sumrall, R. O., Roberts, J., and Farmer, M. T. (1981).Differential Police Response Strategies, Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, D.C.
Tien, J. M., Simon, J. W., and Larson, R. C. (1978).An Alternative Approach in Police Patrol: The Wilmington Split-Force Experiment, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Tranter, P. J. (1985). Intra-urban variability in rhythms of pathological events.Geograf. Ann. 67B: 7–14.
Trewartha, G. T., and Horn, L. H. (1980).An Introduction to Climate, 5th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York.
Will, D. P., and Sells, S. B. (1968). Prediction of Police Incidents and Accidents by Meteorological Variables. Technical Report No. 14, Group Psychology Branch, Office of Naval Research and Institute of Behavioral Research, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth.
Wilson, J. Q. (1968).Varieties of Police Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
LeBeau, J.L., Corcoran, W.T. Changes in calls for police service with changes in routine activities and the arrival and passage of weather fronts. J Quant Criminol 6, 269–291 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065411
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01065411