Physical-spatial and configurational attributes of street segments and occurrences of pedestrian mugging

Abstract This paper deals with the relationship between occurrences of pedestrian mugging in different periods of the day and the physical-spatial and configurational attributes of street segments in the 22 neighbourhoods in the central region of Porto Alegre, including: segment length, connectivity, integration and choice, physical and visual connections, physical and visual barriers, lampposts, number of garage doors, types of building use, and uses at ground floor during each of the four periods of the day. In addition, the day of the week, month and year in which the pedestrian mugging occurred is considered. The occurrences of pedestrian mugging were collected through the digital platform “Where I was mugged” and cover the period from 01/01/12 to 31/03/16. The data obtained were recorded in the QGIS program, based on a satellite image of the region and associated to a segment map generated by the Depthmap program. In addition, statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS/PC program. The results show a tendency of pedestrian muggings to occur during the night and afternoon periods and in poorly lit street segments with low levels of physical and visual connections between buildings and open public spaces, with few buildings for residential, commercial/services and mixed uses, and with a small amount of residential uses and services and commercial activities on the ground floors.