Verity Tether

Profile

I am a PhD student with an, interest in the geography of crime.  My PhD research is focused on a case study of crimes in and around the red-light district in Leeds, using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. 

Research interests

The relationship between geography and crime has been studied for centuries, and crime has been found to cluster in certain areas, rather than having either a random or uniform distribution in space.  Whilst analysing these clusters of crime, Brantingham and Brantingham (1995) and Clarke and Eck (2003) identified three different underlying causal mechanisms for their location, thus distinguishing three types of clusters; crime generators, crime attractors, and crime enablers.

My PhD research aims to critically appraise the concept of crime generators, attractors and enablers, in order to gain understanding of its relevance to the geography of crime in modern-day cities.  A mixed-methods approach, incorporating a variety of methods from interviews to agent-based modelling, shall be used to investigate the red-light district in Leeds as a case study, focusing on changes to the spatial pattern of crime around the area following changes to policing patterns.  This shall be achieved with the following objectives:

1.       Critically appraise the relevance of crime generators, attractors and enablers to modern-day cities using a systematic literature review.

2.       Use a mixed methods approach to investigate elements of crime attractors, including under-reporting of crime, perception of crime and the impact of high-level intervention on crime patterns.

3.       Examine the fundamentals of modelling this concept, both traditionally and following high-level intervention, using an agent-based model.

4.       Apply this concept to investigate the future of the red-light district in Leeds, considering the opposing consequences of increasing cyber-prostitution and prostitution zoning.

Qualifications

• BA Geography (International)
• MSc Geographical Information Systems

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Spatial Analysis and Policy