Public transportation is frequently used for commiting crimes around Baltimore, to the point that they've started to shut down train stops outside the city. It's sad too, because the bus and train stops were added so people in the city had wider access to employment, but violent crime rates spiked in the areas surrounding the stops, so now the people that live and work around the stops are trying to get the government to shut them down. I can't really blame them though, because a local mall added bus stops, and now the mall has guard towers throughout the parking lot because of the muggings and shootings that came along with the bus stop.
They often go to where it is most optimal to commit a certain crime. For instance, a bank nearby was robbed this morning. It’s close to a freeway. Another example, a bunch of cars near the freeway had their catalytic converters taken out. Lastly, package thieves are quite common in my neighborhood (the packages are dropped off in front of doors visible from the street). In all these cases, the criminals case places from their cars. Also when the police do catch them, they are usually not residents of the city but often but not always live maybe 10-20 miles away.
That would be a very bad tactic
In fact touring crime seems like a better approach, you commit a bunch of crimes in a city and move on, never to be seen there again
That's what I had assumed too, but there are several factors that dominate, statistically:
When you do a crime close to home you blend in, you are more likely to know about the opportunities, and you can more quickly/easily escape home.
Crimes of passion and opportunity are by definition done where you happen to be, which is likely to be where you typically are anyway.
Many "crimes" are really defined to control populations, so the people committing them aren't really criminals and of course such "crimes" are enforced where the target population lives.
Of course crimes are also committed by people who don't live nearby, but they seem to be a small minority of crimes, though a large majority of book/movie crimes (otherwise...how boring those stories would be)
