Guns of Brixton: which London neighborhoods host gang activity?

Previous works in architecture and social science found that aspects of the built environment such as density, connectivity, and house typologies are related to crime. However, these studies are qualitative, and thus hardly repeatable at larger scales. In this work, we overcome this limitation by offering a quantitative approach that explores the relationship between the configuration of the built environment and the activity of criminal groups in city areas. The method extracts a wide set of metrics related to aspects of urban form from openly accessible datasets. We then input these metrics in a step-wise logistic linear model, using presence of gang activity as dependent variable, and obtain a parsimonious model with an excellent fit when applied to the metropolitan area of London, UK. We then use values and slopes of model coefficients to build a narrative of the typical city area characterized by gang activity, re-connecting to previous theories. Outcomes of this research can help policy makers and architects in better understanding the relationship between neighborhood design and criminal activity.