Mapping Food Access and Related Risk Factors in Forecasting Social Disorder and Crime

This paper seeks to disaggregate the relative effects of key environmental, economic, and social factors, including risk of crime, on food access in Newark, New Jersey. First, we identify environmental risk factors that contribute to the spatial distribution of aggravated assault. We then compare the results of this analysis that generates risk scores for assault in microenvironments to food access maps. The final part of the analysis assesses the relationship of these risk scores to macro level measures of social disorganization in determining their differential impact on food access. The results of this study suggest that high-risk environments for aggravated assaults and the presence of abandoned properties are strongly associated with the distribution of food access. In addition, individuals who are going to bodegas to get food within food deserts are also increasing their risks of becoming victims of aggravated assault. As such, food policy must consider how to mitigate the negative effects of multiple layers of deprivation, including crime, to better eradicate food deserts.