Spatial point pattern analysis of drug related crimes in October 2017 in Manila City

ABSTRACT

Many studies and statistical reports presented by anti-drug agencies in the Philippines suggest that illicit drug use in the Philippines had been increasing substantially. This study aims to analyse the locations of drug-related incidents in Manila City in October 2017 through the analysis of spatial point patterns. The point pattern for drug-related crimes was then tested for spatial dependence with specific establishments in Manila City such as schools, churches, and police stations. Notable results presented in this paper are: (i) the imposition of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency to handle all drug-related crimes had significantly decreased the number of reported drug crimes, (ii) drug-related crimes were clustered on residential areas, (iii) drug-related crimes were inclined to happen far from colleges and universities, and (iv) drug-related crimes happened more frequently near public high schools.

KEYWORDS:

• Drugs
• drug-related incidents
• drugs and youth
• manila
• spatial point patterns

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. United Nations defines drug-related crimes as “intentional acts that involve the cultivation; production; manufacture; extraction; preparation; offering for sale; distribution; purchase; sale; delivery on any terms whatsoever; brokerage; dispatch; dispatch in transit; transport; importation; exportation; possession or trafficking of internationally controlled drugs” (United Nations, 2003, p. 91). In the Philippines, it is defined in R.A. 9165 as the importation, sale, administration, delivery, distribution, transportation, possession, use, cultivation, unlawful and unnecessary prescription of prohibited and regulated drugs and paraphernalia used, maintenance of a den, dive, or resort for prohibited drug users, and as an employee and visitor of prohibited drug dens (Congress of the Philippines 2002).

2. BantayKrimen.com is a website that is a joint project between the Philippine National Police and a team of developers from the University of the Cordilleras (Enano, 2016). It was launched and handled by the Philippine National Police alongside a mobile app, “BantayKrimen” on 2016 (Caliwan, 2016). Both the website and the app featured map of crime incidents from the Philippine National Police data that users can view by setting the location of interest (Caliwan, 2016). Aside from the location of the crime, users can also view the date, time, and police station the crime was reported to (Caliwan, 2016).