Spatial and temporal dimensions of assaults against children in Dallas,Texas, 1980–81

The role of environmental factors in incidents of violence has been relatively neglected in recent decades. Complementing recent research in social psychology and social geography, the present study tested two hypotheses: (1) general environmental conditions-day of the week, season of the y ear, and thermal stress-are significant predictors of the daily incidence of assaults on children, and (2) victim characteristics, sites of incidents, and types of assaults on children vary with levels of neighborhood socioeconomic status. Some 1614 incidents involving persons aged 18 and under were abstracted from a data base of 9994 aggravated assaults drawn from the files of the Dallas, Texas, Police Department, covering a 20-month period from March 1980, through October 1981. Analysis indicated that general environmental indicators are significantly related to daily frequencies of assaults on children. Further, neighborhood socioeconomic status was significantly associated with children's race, sites of assaults on children, and types of assault. Overall, only 11% of the assaults studied were classified as “abuse.” The dominant modes of assault involved firearms (28%) and knives (23%). The analysis revealed how assaults on children varied quantitatively and qualitatively as a function of victim characteristics, temporal and spatial context, and thermal stress.