Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Grace Telesco

Committee Member

Steven Hecht

Committee Member

Theodore Lentz

Committee Member

Marcelo Castro

Keywords

ambient population, crime attractors, crime generation, crime generators, crime pattern theory, event attendance, event days, natural experiment, negative binomial regression, population-adjusted crime rates, quasi-experimental design, spatial analysis, spatial crime patterns, sporting events, stadium crime, temporal crime patterns, United States

Abstract

This study examines whether a major multi-purpose stadium in the Southeastern United States functions as a crime attractor, a crime generator, both, or neither by analyzing spatial and temporal patterns of crime across sporting event days, concert days, and non-event days. Guided by crime pattern theory, a quasi-experimental natural experiment design is employed using incident-level and day-level crime data from March of 2024 through December of 2025 within a two-mile radius of the stadium. Spatial analyses assess whether crimes occur closer to the stadium on event days, while negative binomial regression models evaluate differences in crime counts and population-adjusted crime rates, accounting for ambient population and event attendance.

Findings indicate partial, predominantly directional support for both crime attraction and crime generation processes. Crime incidents were located closer to the stadium on sporting event days, suggesting spatial concentration consistent with attractor dynamics, though statistical significance was limited. Crime counts were descriptively higher on event days; however, these differences were not statistically significant. When adjusted for population exposure, crime rates did not increase and were lowest on sporting event days, consistent with the denominator problem and generator processes driven by increased population rather than elevated risk.

Overall, results suggest the stadium functions as both a crime attractor and generator in a descriptive sense, particularly during sporting events, though effects are modest and not definitively established.

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