Navigating Crime: Entrepreneurs' Spatial Protection Strategies in an Informal Economy

Extant research often argues that the environment of the informal economy entrepreneurs is inherently dangerous and strongly associated with crime. In this study, we seek to move beyond crime as a generalized characteristic and draw on environmental criminology to explore variations in crime victimization. We adopt methodological bricolage and leverage a unique 'small area census' dataset of entrepreneurs in a South African township. Using geographic information systems (GIS) data and geospatial analyses, we first visualize and identify geographically bound hot and cold spots of crime within the township. Next, in probing factors that influence the variation in crime victimization, we find that taxi ranks were a particular protective spatial feature. In subsequent regression analysis, we find that taxi ranks play a role in enabling cold spots or providing shelter within hot spots and are particularly protective for more marginalized actors (foreigners). We theorize that taxi ranks serve as form of spatial safe haven for operating businesses. However, we find that the protective influence of taxi ranks has a limited geographic reach; the range of protective coverage varies across taxi ranks and in particular is much broader in cold spots compared to hot spots. To explore this, we zoom in to explore the micro-geography of each type of rank. By visually examining each’s evolution over time and through satellite imagery and field observation, we identify three apparent protective strategies: 1) defensive co-location (vendors setting up near the rank over time), 2) spatial integration (between rank and vendors) and 3) spatial authority (singular vs. multiple land claimants) as important factors that link defensive co-location to the physical range of protection from crime. Our work builds generative links across literatures of entrepreneurship, micro-geography, and environmental criminology which extends understanding of co-location patterns and enriches understanding of how crime relates to informal economy entrepreneurship.      «

Extant research often argues that the environment of the informal economy entrepreneurs is inherently dangerous and strongly associated with crime. In this study, we seek to move beyond crime as a generalized characteristic and draw on environmental criminology to explore variations in crime victimization. We adopt methodological bricolage and leverage a unique 'small area census' dataset of entrepreneurs in a South African township. Using geographic information systems (GIS) data and geospatia...     »