Research conducted by psychologists at the University of Leicester and by Northamptonshire Police has found that criminals have their own distinctive ‘local haunts’ when committing crime. According to PhD student Matthew Tonkin, Professor Ray Bull, Dr Emma Palmer and Dr John Bond’s research, robbers, burglars and car thieves have specific geographical areas that they favour when committing crime, which are relatively unique from one offender to the next. By identifying these locations, it is hoped that the police will be better placed to identify the person responsible and subsequently catch them. The findings suggest that, when the police are faced with unsolved crimes, they may be able to identify which crimes are the work of the same person simply by looking at where the offences were committed and the distance between the offence sites. Speaking of the project, Matthew Tonkin said: “Our research is one of several studies conducted around the world that demonstrate the importance of offender spatial behaviour. So, the locations of crime aren’t just an irrelevant consequence of crime; they can tell us very important information about who is responsible and which crimes are the work of the same person.
“Crucially, however, our study shows that these findings extend across different types of crime, whereas previous work has looked at crimes, such as burglary, robbery and car theft, separately.” By extending these findings across different types of crime, the researchers claim that the work has also shown that the ‘local haunts’ favoured by offenders when committing crime do not differ depending on the type of crime. Instead of offenders having different areas that they favour for committing burglaries, car thefts and robberies, it is suggested that they commit all of their offences in similar areas. The research is being presented to the public at the University of Leicester on June 24 at the Festival of Postgraduate Research.