Modern spatial criminology has its roots in the social statistics of 19th century France. Investigating the variation in property and violent crimes across French departments, Guerry (1832, 1833) and Quetelet (1831, 1842) found unique patterns for each crime classification. They also found relationships between crime and a number of social, demographic, economic, and climatic conditions. In this paper we revisit the work of Guerry and Quetelet using modern spatial statistical techniques. We find that the relationships identified by Guerry and Quetelet are robust when employing modern spatial analysis. Additionally, we find the patterns of crime in 19th century France are remarkably similar to contemporary crime patterns in other nations. These findings suggest that the spatial findings of Guerry and Quetelet hold up when using modern advanced spatial methodologies.
