Brian Soller, University of Maryland Baltimore County

Presentation Title: Mobility Networks, Neighborhood Interdependence, and Crime Diffusion in Urban Areas

About the Presentation

Large-scale mobility data derived from GPS-enabled devices are increasingly used to study how human movement shapes social processes, from responses to pandemics and natural disasters to the diffusion of crime across cities. Yet despite the growing availability of these data, there is little consensus about how mobility should be measured to best capture how routine movement connects urban areas. Integrating insights from social network analysis, geography, and criminology, this study examines how everyday patterns of movement connect neighborhoods, testing alternative approaches to measuring mobility networks and their ability to explain the diffusion of crime beyond geographic proximity alone. Using mobility and crime incident data from several U.S. cities, I construct networks linking census block groups through movement patterns and compare alternative approaches to measuring the strength and structure of these connections. I then assess whether crime in mobility-connected places at one time point predicts crime in focal neighborhoods at the next, providing a longitudinal examination of crime diffusion across urban areas. The findings demonstrate that how mobility ties are defined has important consequences for identifying relationships between places and understanding crime diffusion. More broadly, the study shows how mobility networks reveal forms of urban interdependence, offering a framework for understanding how everyday movement connects communities and shapes the spread of urban problems.

About the Speaker

Brian Soller is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His research examines how social networks shape community processes, health and well-being, and career advancement among university faculty.

Seminar Format:

Location IN PERSON: 2208 LeFrak Hall. We are requesting advanced registration so that we can track capacity.  Please use this link to RSVP for in-person attendance.

Location ONLINE VIA ZOOM: Zoom registration link.  Upon registration, you will receive an automatically generated email with the direct link for the seminar

If accommodations are needed, please send a request to the meeting organizer (mprc-support@umd.edu) at least 72 hours prior to the event, if possible, to allow time to discuss and implement alternatives.