Land use and crimes in Indonesian rural and urban areas

ABSTRACT

Crime is one of the problems faced by countries worldwide. Theft, gambling, drug, fraud, persecution, and conflict are among the crimes that commonly occur in Indonesia, which may be accounted for by a range of factors, including economic ones. Land use also emerges as another factor leading to crimes. Land use at the village level can be divided into three categories: undiversified, moderately diversified, and diversified. This work applied two analysis models. First, it employed logistic regression to capture the criminal possibility of each land use category. Second, it applied Ordinary Least Square to view crimes holistically in each land use category. This paper suggests that mixed land use and public space could significantly lower crime probability. Meanwhile, using land as a business and industrial center was found to trigger crimes. The existence of prostitution areas in villages/subdistricts raises the possibility of a rise in human trafficking and sexual Harassment. This study showed that using land as a public space potentially increases conflicts in Indonesia. This study provided the Indonesian government with a new insight to consider when developing an area by taking land use diversity into account in order to minimize crime risks.

KEYWORDS:

• Crime
• mixed use
• public space
• rural-urban area

JEL:

• H55; R14; R52; O18

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).