Résumé
"Environmental criminology explores the relationship between surrounding context and criminal events. Such exploration can be for repeated crimes of individuals or for aggregations of criminal events. This thesis is an effort to situate the role of licensed drinking establishments in the distribution of crime across urban space. Of the many perspectives available "pattern theory," as developed by Brantingham & Brantingham, is exemplary in its engagement of the diverse challenges present in any attempts at understanding or even merely exploring urban crime phenomena. Pattern theory is seen as most useful for both its sophisticated analysis of crime as an event and the provision of immediate linkages between empirical study and urban planning. Such potential is discussed in the context of an investigation of the relationship between licensed premises (bars. pubs. and cabarets) and calls for police service in the Downtown district of Vancouver for three consecutive months (April through June 1996). For each month, all calls in the study area are plotted using street addresses contained in files generated from the Vancouver Police Department Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) database. After consideration of the macro scale patterning of dispatch locations, the thesis moves to a finer cone of resolution to explore meso- and micro spaces of interest, as suggested by the macro picture, previous empirical studies, and relevant theory. Our findings provide support for the hypothesis that licensed public drinking establishments do have an impact on crimes known to police. While the findings of this case study must be considered preliminary, they are strong enough to justify further exploration into the bar-crime nexus."--Abstract.