10.2190/EY9P-0EW0-DK43-XTDT EY9P0EW0DK43XTDT 4 Aggravated Assault and the Urban System: Dallas, 1980-81 243 253 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 EY9P0EW0DK43XTDT.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=EY9P0EW0DK43XTDT 3 Keith D. Harries Stephen J. Stadler Department of Geography, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Catonsville Department of Geography, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater Prior research on the relationship between violence, heat stress, and the urban socioeconomic environment has suggested links between these three variables. Specifically, low-status neighborhoods appeared to exhibit a relatively exaggerated response to heat stress compared to higher status areas. This article uses prior work on the severe summer of 1980 as a point of departure for comparisons between 1980 and 1981 (a "normal" year). In the study period consisting of 609 days, some 9,994 assaults were recorded in Dallas. The underlying expectations were that 1) 1981 would, in general, show a diminished level of assault in the summer, owing, in part, to diminished heat stress, and 2) certain environmental relationships revealed in the analysis of 1980 data would be replicated with a substantially expanded data set. Initially, weather data for 1980 and 1981 were compared in order to establish that the summer of 1981 was indeed meteorologically different from that of 1980. Then a general model was developed, incorporating a Discomfort Index, day of the week, month, and selected interaction terms. Residuals were analyzed. Pairwise month-by-month comparisons of mean assault frequencies were made, by neighborhoods classified according to their socioeconomic status. In general, 1980-81 differences were less pronounced than expected, possibly due in part to population growth in the Dallas area. Other explanations lie in the so-called curvilinear effect, and the calendar effect. C. A. Anderson and D. C. Anderson, Ambient Temperature and Violent Crime: Tests of the Linear and Curvilinear Hypotheses, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46</i>:1, pp. 91-97, 1984. J. Rotton and J. Frey, Air Pollution, Weather, and Violent Crime: Concomitant Time-series Analysis of Archival Data, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47</i>, in press. K. D. Harries and S. J. Stadler, Determinism Revisited: Assault and Heat Stress in Dallas, 1980, <i>Environment and Behavior, 15:2</i>, pp. 235-256, 1983. K. D. Harries, S. J. Stadler, and R. T. Zdorskowski, Seasonality and Assault: Explorations in Interneighborhood Variation, Dallas, 1980, <i>Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 74</i>: 4, pp. 590-604, 1984. Anonymous, <i>Westminister Review, 18</i>, pp. 353-366, 1833. E. G. Dexter, <i>Weather Influences: An Empirical Study of the Mental and Physiological Effects of Definite Meterorological Conditions</i>, Macmillan, New York, 1904. Bureau of Justice Statistics, <i>Crime and Seasonality</i>, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1980. C. J. Glacken, <i>Traces on the Rhodian Shore</i>, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1967. E. Huntington, <i>Mainsprings of Civilization</i>, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1945. L. T. Lewis and J. J. Alford, The Influence of Season on Assault, <i>Professional Geographer, 28</i>: 2, pp. 214-217, 1975. R. A. Baron and V. M. Ransberger, Ambient Temperature and the Occurrence of Collective Violence: The "Long, Hot Summer" Revisited, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36</i>: 4, pp. 351-360, 1978. J. M. Carlsmith and C. A. Anderson, Ambient Temperature and the Occurrence of Collective Violence: A New Analysis, <i>Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37</i>:3, pp. 337-344, 1979. P. E. Lydolph and T. B. Williams, The North American Sukhovey, <i>Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 72</i>:2, pp. 224-236, 1982. J. E. Oliver and J. J. Hidore, <i>Climatology: An Introduction</i>, Charles E. Merrill Company, Columbus, Ohio, p. 255, 1984. D. M. Ludlum, Weatherwatch, September, 1980, <i>Weatherwise, 33</i>:2, p. 279, 1980. K. D. Harries and S. J. Stadler, Heat and Violence: New Findings from Dallas Field Data, 1980-81. In progress. U. S. Bureau of the Census, <i>Statistical Abstract of the U. S.: 1985</i> (105th edition), U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., p. 23, 1984.