CURRENT RESEARCH • HUMAN MOBILITY • SPATIAL CRIMINOLOGY
Human Mobility & Crime
Understanding how changing populations across time and place shape crime opportunities, guardianship and victimization.
This research moves beyond static measures of where people live to examine where people are throughout the day. Using mobile-device geotracking, GIS and spatial analysis, the project investigates the dynamic relationship between human movement and crime.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Crime Happens Where People Are — Not Simply Where They Live
Many traditional neighborhood studies use residential population as the primary measure of the people exposed to or capable of influencing crime within an area. Yet urban populations are constantly changing as people travel to work, shop, attend events, visit entertainment districts and move through neighborhoods.
The Human Mobility & Crime initiative examines these dynamic population patterns using mobile-device geotracking and spatial methods. The research considers the mix of residents and visitors, population inflows and outflows, ambient population, temporal changes in guardianship and other mobility characteristics that may help explain when and where crime occurs.
This approach creates opportunities to test environmental criminology and routine activity theories with population measures that more closely reflect the actual social environment of places across different times of day.
WHY HUMAN MOBILITY MATTERS
A More Dynamic View of Crime and Place
01
Population Exposure
Places can experience substantial changes in population as residents leave and visitors arrive throughout the day.
02
Guardianship
The presence or absence of residents may change the level of informal guardianship available at different times.
03
Crime Opportunity
Different population mixtures may change the convergence of potential offenders, targets and guardians within places.
04
Temporal Change
Relationships between people and crime can vary by time of day, weekday versus weekend and neighborhood context.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What Are We Trying to Understand?
Population Mix
How does the changing mix of residents and visitors within urban neighborhoods relate to crime?
Resident Presence
Does the presence of residents provide different levels of guardianship across times of day and types of crime?
Mobility Clusters
Can neighborhoods be classified by distinctive mobility patterns that help explain differences in criminal activity?
RESEARCH APPROACH
How We Study Human Mobility
The project integrates dynamic population measures with crime data and spatial analytical methods to study changing urban environments.
Mobile-Device Geotracking
Measures the changing presence and movement of populations across neighborhoods.
Spatiotemporal Analysis
Examines how relationships vary across geographic space and different periods of time.
Mobility Clustering
Identifies areas with similar population movement and spatiotemporal population characteristics.
Spatial Modeling
Links mobility and population characteristics to spatial patterns of crime and victimization.
RESEARCH TEAM
Human Mobility & Crime Research Team
An interdisciplinary team combining expertise in spatial criminology, crime analysis, quantitative methods, policing and technology.
PROJECT RESEARCHER
Dr. Olga B. Semukhina
Department Head & Professor
Director, Institute for Predictive and Analytical Policing Science
PROJECT RESEARCHER
Dr. Junghwan Bae
Assistant Professor
Department of Criminal Justice
PROJECT RESEARCHER
Dr. Stan Korotchenko
Assistant Professor & MCJ Coordinator
Department of Criminal Justice
PROJECT RESEARCHER
Dr. Christopher Copeland
Associate Professor of Computer Science & Electrical Engineer
Department of Computer Science & Electrical Engineer
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Research From the Project
Selected peer-reviewed publications examine dynamic population composition, guardianship, human mobility and the spatial context of crime and victimization.
2025 • JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Spatiotemporal Population Mix (SPM) as a Criminogenic Mechanism: Testing Environmental Criminology Hypotheses With Mobility Clusters Derived From Mobile-Device Geotracking
Semukhina, O., Bae, J., Korotchenko, S., & Copeland, C. Journal of Criminal Justice, 99, 102473.
2025 • DEVIANT BEHAVIOR
How After-Hours Population Composition Affects Crime: Analyzing Resident-Visitor Ratios in Urban Neighborhoods Throughout the Day
Korotchenko, S., Bae, J., Semukhina, O., & Copeland, C. Deviant Behavior, 1–22.
2025 • CRIME & DELINQUENCY
Resident Presence and Burglary: A Spatiotemporal Exploration of Guardianship Patterns Using Mobile Phone Tracking Data as a Measure of Ambient Population
Bae, J., Korotchenko, S., Semukhina, O. B., & Copeland, C. Crime & Delinquency.
2024 • VICTIMS & OFFENDERS
Revising What We Know About Spatial Predictors of Violent Victimization: A Comprehensive Analysis of Differential Effects of Spatial Predictors of Robbery Victimization for Victims of Different Ethnic Backgrounds
Semukhina, O. B., Korotchenko, S., Tsang, Y. T., Dinulescu, C. C., & Fincher, I. R. Victims & Offenders, 1–39.
SPATIAL RESEARCH • COLLABORATION • DATA
Interested in Human Mobility Research?
We welcome interdisciplinary collaboration involving mobility data, GIS, environmental criminology, crime analysis and spatial research.