A new study has concluded that in New Jersey’s largest city, crime was concentrated significantly around corner stores compared with other commercial venues. The study’s findings have implications for crime prevention, urban planning, and community safety policies.

Co-authored by Alejandro Gimenez-Santana, assistant professor of professional practice in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University–Newark, the study examined the spatial relationship between corner stores and crime in Newark to assess whether these venues play a distinct role in crime. Gimenez-Santana, along with Marco Dugato from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy, and other researchers from Rutgers, used 2022 crime data to investigate how the distribution of gun violence, robberies, and aggravated assaults was connected to proximity to corner stores in comparison with other similar venues (e.g., convenience stores, pharmacies, retail stores, restaurants, gas stations). They explored how these associations were influenced by neighborhood characteristics and time of day.

Published in the Journal of Criminal Justice, the study found that crime was significantly concentrated around corner stores, and this association was stronger for gun violence and aggravated assaults than for robberies. Interaction effects suggest that neighborhood characteristics shaped the degree and nature of crime around these stores, with not all corner stores having the same concentration of crimes. The study also found that crime persisted around corner stores both day and night, implying mechanisms beyond business hours.

The study’s findings underscore the need to disaggregate place-based risk assessments and differentiate interventions considering both micro-place features and broader contexts.

“Previous studies have often treated convenience stores as a homogeneous risk category, but we determined that corner stores exert a unique influence on crime patterns,” said Gimenez-Santana. “Our results highlight the multifaceted role that different types of retail and commercial spaces play in shaping urban crime patterns, and underscore the importance of moving beyond generic risk classifications toward more place-specific diagnostics.”

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