FSS-DSOC Luncheon Seminar 2025 Fall #1 & Mini-Methods Meeting (M3)

Decades of criminological research have made clear that both a small number of victims and locations experience a huge proportion of all crimes committed. With few exceptions, prior studies have assumed that all crimes are created equally. In this study, I explore the concentration of harm spots across space and time. Using 2,563 pirate attacks drawn from the International Maritime Organization, I find that among the 241 grids with at least one attack, five grids were responsible for a third of all attacks and harm, while 16 grids were responsible for half of all attacks and harm. For the overlapping hot spots and harm spots (co-locations), the results indicate that 11 grids alone, or 4.56 percent of them, accounted for 41.47 percent of all attacks and 40.29 percent of total harm. In support of longstanding arguments that a small number of places generate a huge proportion of crime on land, I find consistent evidence for the existence of hot spots and harm spots in the oceans using the context of maritime piracy. Because of the vast expanse of the ocean and to conserve resources, coastal police should focus most of their limited resources to deal with piracy in these priority co-locations.