There are a lot of confounding variables here, and others have mentioned a few. One I have not seen is "proximity to major arterials". Sometimes crime concent

There are a lot of confounding variables here, and others have mentioned a few. One I have not seen is "proximity to major arterials". Sometimes crime concentrates around major streets and parking lots where cars can be stolen or broken into. (The OP mentions "grand theft from locked auto" as being ~10% of crimes, for example.) Another common crime, shoplifting and petty thefts, occurs around strips of shops, urban malls, transit stations, or bus stops. These crimes really don't have to do with altitude, and they are common enough to really affect results. The reason I know this is by inspecting the LAPD compstat maps, which are superior, in many ways, to the linked one. One place to see them is: http://www.crimemapping.com/map/region/LAPDHollywoodArea http://www.crimemapping.com/map/region/LAPDHollywoodArea This is Hollywood. You can notice the concentration of crimes along Hollywood Blvd, or the other major east-west streets. (The zoom tool is on the right, and it may be good to increase the time span to a month.) Inspecting the causes show they are often thefts from vehicles, etc., as mentioned above.