Evaluating the Impact the Weekday Has on Near-Repeat Victimization: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Street Robberies in the City of Vienna, Austria.

The near-repeat phenomenon refers to the increased risk of repeat victimization not only at the same location but at nearby locations up to a certain distance and for a certain time period. In recent research, near-repeat victimization has been repeatedly confirmed for different crime types such as burglaries or shootings. In this article the near-repeat phenomenon is analyzed for each day of the week separately. That is, the near-repeat pattern is evaluated for all consecutive Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, etc. included in the dataset. These consecutive weekdays represent the fictive set of consecutive dates to allow for spatial and temporal analysis of crime patterns. Using these principles, it is hypothesized that street robberies cluster in space and time and by the same day of the week. This research analyzes street robberies from 2009 to 2013 in Vienna, Austria. The overall research goal investigates whether near-repeat patterns of robberies exist by weekdays and in an additional step by time of day, and whether these near-repeat patterns differ from each other and from purely spatial patterns. The results of this research confirm the existence of near-repeat patterns by weekday and especially by time of day. Distinctive locations have been identified that differ greatly per weekday and time of day. Based on this information, law enforcement agencies in Austria can optimize strategic planning of police resources in combating robberies.