Vol.:(0123456789) Journal of Quantitative Criminology https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-019-09446-5 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Crime Generators in Context: Examining ‘Place in Neighborhood’ Propositions Marie Skubak Tillyer 1  · Pamela Wilcox 2  · Rebecca J. Walter 3 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Objectives The present study tests hypotheses regarding the moderating infuence of neighborhood-level criminal opportunity on the relationship between crime generators and block-level crime. Methods We frst estimated multilevel negative binomial regression models for violent, property, and drug crimes to identify crime-type specifc crime generators on each block. We then estimated a series of crime-type specifc models to examine whether the efects of violent, property, and drug crime generators are moderated by three census block group- level indicators of neighborhood criminal opportunity—concentrated disadvantage, vehic- ular trafc activity, and civic engagement. Results The positive relationship between crime generators and crime on blocks was exac- erbated in census block groups with high levels of concentrated disadvantage and high lev- els of trafc activity for all three crime types. The efects of crime generators on block- level crime were signifcantly tempered in census block groups with high levels of civic engagement. Conclusions Particular place types do not generate crime similarly across varying neigh- borhood contexts. Rather, the criminogenic efects of micro-places appear to be exacer- bated in neighborhoods with extensive criminal opportunity and tempered in neighbor- hoods with less criminal opportunity. Keywords Place in neighborhood · Multilevel opportunity · Crime generators · Crime and place * Marie Skubak Tillyer Marie.Tillyer@utsa.edu 1 Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas at San Antonio, 501 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., San Antonio, TX 78207, USA 2 Department of Sociology and Criminology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA 3 College of Built Environments, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA