Human geography studies people and their activities, and physical geography studies the natural environment (Goodall, 1987). While these two areas are not unconnected, human geography is specifically concerned with three integrated themes: (1) spatial analysis; (2) interrelationships between people and the environment; and (3) regional syntheses of the first two themes. Its major fields of study include behavioural, economic, historical, political, regional, rural, social, transport, and urban geography.

Behavioural geography examines how people come to terms with their physical and social environments, and uses behaviourism as a means of understanding patterns of human spatial action. How people codify, respond to, and react with their environments is explained in terms of cognitive processes such as learning and stimulus-response. Those areas of behavioural geography and the related quantitative techniques relevant for an understanding of crime patterns and offender spatial behaviour are discussed below.

6.1 Movement and Distance

Perhaps the most basic heuristic in geography is the nearness principle, also known in psychology as the least-effort principle (Zipf, 1950). A person who is “given various possibilities for action ... will select the one requiring the least expenditure of effort” (Reber, 1985, p. 400). This maxim describes a great deal about the movement of people but many other factors come into play in the psychology and behaviour of choice (Cornish & Clarke, 1986b; Luce, 1959; Tversky & Kahneman, 1981). Least effort is an important principle in the study of crime journeys.

When multiple destinations of equal desirability are available, the leasteffort principle suggests the closest one will be chosen. The determination

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of “closest,” however, can be a problematic assessment. Isotropic surfaces, spaces exhibiting equal physical properties in all directions, are rarely found within the human geographical experience. Instead, individuals are confronted with anisotropic surfaces where movement is easier in some directions or along certain routes, and harder along others. People travel through networks of roads and highways by “wheel distance” (Rhodes & Conly, 1981) rather than by Euclidean distance.

Other factors can be just as important as physical space. Macrolevel travel choices are influenced by time and money expenditures — distance is not as important as connections, time, and costs to an air traveller. Income and socioeconomic status thus have important influences on spatial behaviour, as a shortage of financial resources constrains choices and determines which options are seen as viable.

Microlevel movement within cities is similarly affected; urban areas are primarily anisotropic, often conforming to some variation of a grid or Manhattan layout30 (Lowe & Moryadas, 1975), with dissimilar traffic flows along different routes. As it is not just a question of minimizing distance, but of reducing time, effort, and costs, the layout of a city, an offender’s mode of transportation, and any significant mental or physical barriers must also be considered in the spatial analysis of crime patterns.

The subjective psychological perception of distance is just as critical as the objective physical space involved. An individual’s perception of distance is influenced by several factors, including (Stea, 1969):

1.Relative attractiveness of origins and destinations;

2.Number and types of barriers separating points;

3.Familiarity with routes;

4.Actual physical distance; and

5.Attractiveness of routes.

While the nearness principle appears to be a simple one, its actual implementation is complicated, requiring an awareness of both objective (physical) and subjective (cognitive) factors. In understanding human movement it is just as important to take into account mental or cognitive maps and their creation as it is to consider physical maps.

30 Studies of movement within different city structures require different metrics. The grid (Manhattan) pattern describes most North American cities, but crow-flight measures are more useful for studies of British cities. Both Manhattan and crow-flight distances are specific forms of the more general Minkowski metric (Waters, 1995b). An individual’s mental map and internal representation of the spatial environment, however, may influence movement more than the external world does.

© 2000 by CRC Press LLC