犯罪地理学主要研究犯罪现象的空间发生、发展和分布规律。从21世纪以来SSCI、SCI收录的地理学及相关学科期刊中整理500多篇犯罪地理研究相关论文,分析西方近年来犯罪地理学发展态势,并选取100余篇代表文献重点评述。总体来看,2000午以来,西方犯罪地理研究通过创新研究方法、加强学科融合等途径推进了犯罪过程和机制的研究,犯罪时空模式、城市社会环境与犯罪的关系、犯罪仿真模拟与地理画像、犯罪空间防控等领域发展迅速,犯罪地理研究不断扩展和深化,学科体系和发展脉络日益清晰。以此为鉴,未来国内的犯罪地理学应加强实证研究,以犯罪空间分析为重点,逐步形成包括新的研究方法、研究视角和空间观的研究体系。
Geography of crime focuses mainly on the spatio-temporal patterns of the occurrence, development and distribution of crime. Since 20th century, many scholars devoted themselves to the study on geography of crime and kept its continuous development and innovation. Study on geography of crime in China started in the early 1980s, several scholars reviewed the researches in this field for the sake of pushing for- ward its domestic development. However, because of its rapidly development, the progress and innovation of studies on geography of crime in western countries since the new century have not been introduced systemat- ically and comprehensively for the present. To understanding the process of the study of geography of crime in western countries, this paper gathered about 500 articles published after 2000, and made reference to the articles published in leading criminology and geography journals, such as Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Progress in Human Geography, Applied Geography, Professional Geographer, Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and more. Overall, the recently rapid growth in geography of crime, contributed largely by innovative research methods and multidisciplinary analysis, is primarily embodies in the exploration of behavioral process and mechanism of crime. Specifically, the progresses in spatial and temporal patterns ofcrime, effect of social and physical environment on criminal behavior, crime simulations and criminal profiling, and crime prevention through environmental design are making the system and devel- opment course ofthe geography of crime become increasingly clear.