This report examines the impacts on and relationships between alcohol outlets and crime patterns in post-quake Christchurch between 2009 and 2014. The analysis examines the spatial distribution of alcohol outlets before and after the Christchurch earthquakes, and looks at how the clustering of alcohol outlets changed and how these changes are related to socio-demographic factors in neighbourhoods.
Methodology
The report draws on three sources of data:
- 2013 census data
- Crime data from the Police
- Alcohol licence data adapted from the Christchurch City Council dataset that was built specifically for this project and is the finest grained available in New Zealand.
These data allowed for the establishment of the first accurate picture of exactly how alcohol licensing changed in the pre and post-quake environment.
Geographic information systems (GIS) was employed at both a global and localised level.
The spatial distribution of alcohol outlets before and after the earthquakes was examined, looking at how the clustering of alcohol outlets changed and how these changes are related to socio-demographic factors in each neighbourhood.
Six neighbourhoods with a high concentration of alcohol licences were identified as ‘clusters of interest’. The relationship between alcohol outlet numbers and crime patterns over time was examined in each area individually.