Does the mobility of foreign offenders fit the general pattern of mobility?

Research on offender mobility is directed to three main elements: distance, anchor points, and direction. Previous research in geographic criminology revealed that: (1) the journey to crime is limited in distance and follows a distance decay pattern; (2) the home of the offender plays a central role as the starting point of crime trips; and (3) the direction of their trip influenced by the opportunities to commit their crimes. The findings are more or less accepted as ‘laws’ in the field. However, research on offender mobility is often limited by its method, data and sample of arrested offenders. This study investigated in contrast a sample of arrested foreign offenders (East-Europeans) who stayed temporarily in Belgium. They lack the spaceawareness and routine activities of residential offenders. Using multiple methods and data including police statistics, case file analysis and offender interviews, we investigated the travelling patterns of these offenders both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings demonstrated that: (1) the degree of distance decay is much more moderate than generally found in the literature; (2) the official living address plays hardly any role at all as an anchor point; and (3) these offenders travel outward opportunity structures that are different from routine activities patterns of Belgium offenders. Overall, our findings indicate that offender mobility does not fit the accepted general pattern or ‘laws’ as assumed in previous research.