Concentrations of railway metal theft and the locations of scrap-metal dealers

Ashby, M.P.J. ORCID: 0000-0003-4201-9239 and Bowers, K.J., 2015. Concentrations of railway metal theft and the locations of scrap-metal dealers. Applied Geography, 63, pp. 283-291. ISSN 0143-6228

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Abstract

Metal theft has become a substantial crime problem in many areas. In response, several countries have introduced legislation to regulate scrap-metal recycling yards. However, at present there is little evidence to support this use of the market reduction approach (MRA) in preventing metal theft. The present study sought to test the underlying assumption of the MRA that the presence of a market for stolen property (in this case provided by scrap yards) drives thefts in a local area. This study tested for a spatial association between the locations of scrap yards and those of metal thefts. The density of industry, local burglary rate and road-accessibility of an area were controlled for. Metal thefts from railway lines in England were shown to be significantly more common in areas with more scrap-metal yards, high road accessibility and high population density. The results support the use of the MRA in relation to metal theft.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Applied Geography
Creators:	Ashby, M.P.J. and Bowers, K.J.
Publisher:	Elsevier
Date:	2015
Volume:	63
ISSN:	0143-6228
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.07.005 DOI
Rights:	© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:40
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:35
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16345

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