BBC:
The more crowded an urban area, the higher the murder rate, say
a group of researchers led by Haroldo Ribeiro of the State
University of Maringa in Brazil. In
their study
published in the journal
PLOS ONE, the researchers focused on a number of
Brazilian cities known for their gang and drug violence. They
found that not only do certain factors such as homicide,
unemployment, and illiteracy increase with population size but
they do so as mathematically predictable power laws. However,
criminologists counter that the relationship between crime and
other sociological factors is extremely complicated and that
math equations cannot take into account the emotions and other
variables involved. Ribeiro maintains that “unveiling
relationships between crime and urban metrics can help to guide
public policies towards more effective investments, and,
consequently, to help prevent crime.”
