Analyzing Crime Patterns

Crime control continues to be a growth industry, despite the drop in crime indicators throughout the nation. This volume shows how state-of-the-art geographic information systems (GIS) are revolutionizing urban law enforcement, with an award-winning program in New York City leading the way. Electronic "pin mapping" is used to display the incidence of crime, to stimulate effective strategies and decision making, and to evaluate the impact of recent activity applied to hotspots. The expert information presented by 12 contributors will guide departments without such tools to understand the latest technologies and successfully employ them. Besides describing and assessing cutting-edge techniques of crime mapping, this book emphasizes: * the organizational and intellectual contexts in which spatial analysis of crime takes place, * the technical problems of defining, measuring, interpreting, and predicting spatial concentrations of crime, * the common use of New York City crime data, and * practical applications of what is known (e.g., a review of mapping and analysis software packages using the same data set). Students, academics, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the areas of criminal justice, corrections, geography, social problems, law and government, public administration, and public policy analysis will need to look at the interdisciplinary nature of both GIS and spatial dimensions of crime in order to comprehend the variety of different approaches address important analytic problems, reassess public facilities and resources, and prepare to respond more quickly to emerging hotspots.

Crime control continues to be a growth industry, despite the drop in crime indicators throughout the nation. This volume shows how state-of-the-art geographic information systems (GIS) are revolutionizing urban law enforcement, with an award-winning program in New York City leading the way. Electronic "pin mapping" is used to display the incidence of crime, to stimulate effective strategies and decision making, and to evaluate the impact of recent activity applied to hotspots. The expert information presented by 12 contributors will guide departments without such tools to understand the latest technologies and successfully employ them. Besides describing and assessing cutting-edge techniques of crime mapping, this book emphasizes: * the organizational and intellectual contexts in which spatial analysis of crime takes place, * the technical problems of defining, measuring, interpreting, and predicting spatial concentrations of crime, * the common use of New York City crime data, and * practical applications of what is known (e.g., a review of mapping and analysis software packages using the same data set). Students, academics, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in the areas of criminal justice, corrections, geography, social problems, law and government, public administration, and public policy analysis will need to look at the interdisciplinary nature of both GIS and spatial dimensions of crime in order to comprehend the variety of different approaches address important analytic problems, reassess public facilities and resources, and prepare to respond more quickly to emerging hotspots.

Successfully analyze crime at any level of law enforcement! This book is a practical resource guide for the development of crime analysis in local law enforcement. The tragedy of September 11, 2001, has raised awareness on how crucial it is to analyze information and intelligence. Smaller agencies that cannot financially justify hiring a full-time analyst will find strategies and techniques to teach officers the methods of analysis. Introduction to Crime Analysis: Basic Resources for Criminal Justice Practice provides basic tools and step-by-step directions that will improve the skills and knowledge of new crime analysts. From the editors: “Military strategists have used analysis for centuries; it makes sense to know as much as possible about the enemy and about the conditions and causes of a situation if we hope to institute any kind of significant change for the better. Career criminals are the enemies of a community's well being. Now that advances in information technology give us the means and methods to fully examine and find meaningful knowledge in the vast amounts of existing information on crimes and criminals, we have an obligation to use our technological strength to protect innocent people. Systematic crime analysis as a law enforcement and public safety asset has become not only possible, but also truly necessary as a weapon in the war against crime.” Along with defining the various roles of the crime analyst, Introduction to Crime Analysis demonstrates how to: improve the personal skills necessary to make you a good crime analyst successfully work through the five stages—collection, collation, analysis, dissemination, and feedback and evaluation—of analysis select the appropriate crime mapping software for your agency evaluate the usefulness of your crime analysis products benefit from email discussion groups and professional associations create a crime analysis unit-including policies and procedures as well as marketing and funding This clearly written resource includes case studies, figures, and appendixes that will simplify the learning process. Links to Internet pages also offer resources and information beneficial to both new and experienced crime analysts. Introduction to Crime Analysis will benefit crime analysts, police officers, intelligence analysts, community groups focused on crime prevention, criminal justice students, and police departments and sheriff’s agencies.

Forensic psychology has developed and extended from an original, narrow focus on presenting evidence to the courts to a wider application across the whole span of civil and criminal justice, which includes dealing with suspects, offenders, victims, witnesses, defendants, litigants and justice professionals. This Handbook provides an encyclopedic-style source regarding the major concerns in forensic psychology. It is an invaluable reference text for practitioners within community, special hospital, secure unit, prison, probation and law enforcement forensic settings, as well as being appropriate for trainees and students in these areas. It will also serve as a companion text for lawyers and psychiatric and law enforcement professionals who wish to be apprised of forensic psychology coverage. Each entry provides a succinct outline of the topic, describes current thinking, identifies relevant consensual or contested aspects and alternative positions. Readers are presented with key issues and directed towards specialized sources for further reference.

Understanding Crime: Analyzing the Geography of Crime is the principal book for fully explaining how to use both theory and technique to study the geographic analysis of crime.

In recent years, the fields of crime analysis and environmental criminology have grown in prominence for their advancements made in understanding crime. This book offers a theoretical and methodological introduction to crime analysis, covering the main techniques used in the analysis of crime and the foundation of crime mapping. Coverage includes discussions of: The development of crime analysis and the profession of the crime analyst, The theoretical roots of crime analysis in environmental criminology, Pertinent statistical methods for crime analysis, Spatio-temporal applications of crime analysis, Crime mapping and the intersection of crime analysis and police work, Future directions for crime analysis. Packed with case studies and including examples of specific problems faced by crime analysts, this book offers the perfect introduction to the analysis and investigation of crime. It is essential reading for students taking courses on crime analysis, crime mapping, crime prevention, and environmental criminology. A companion website offers further resources for students, including flashcards and video and website links. For instructors, it includes chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides.

One of the key methods of reducing and dealing with criminal activity is to accurately gauge and then analyse the geographical distribution of crime (from small scale to large scale areas). Once the police and government know what areas suffer most from criminal activity they can assess why this is the case and then deal with it in the most effective way. Crime mapping and the spatial analysis of crime data have become recognised as powerful tools for the study and control of crime. Much of the emerging demand for more information and detailed crime pattern analysis have been driven by legislative changes, such as the UK's new Crime and Disorder Act which has placed a joint statutory duty on Police Forces and Local Authorities to produce crime and disorder audits for their areas. The book sets out methods used in the fields of Geographical Information Systems and highlights areas of best practice, examines the types of problems to which spatial crime analysis can be applied, reviews the capabilities and limitations of existing techniques, and explores the future directions of spatial crime analysis and the need for training. It centres on a series of case studies highlighting the experiences of academics and practitioners in agencies centrally involved in the partnership approach to crime prevention. Practitioners and academics not only in the UK but also worldwide should be interested in the book as an up-to-date information resource and a practical guide.

Crime Analysis With Crime Mapping, Fourth Edition provides students and practitioners with a solid foundation for understanding the conceptual nature and practice of crime analysis to assist police in preventing and reducing crime and disorder. Author Rachel Boba Santos offers an in-depth description of this emerging field, as well as guidelines and techniques for conducting crime analysis supported by evidence-based research, real world application, and recent innovations in the field. As the only introductory core text for crime analysis, this must-have resource presents readers with opportunities to apply theory, research methods, and statistics to careers that support and enhance the effectiveness of modern policing.

Crime and Intelligence Analysis: An Integrated Real-Time Approach covers everything crime analysts and tactical analysts need to know to be successful. Providing an overview of the criminal justice system as well as the more fundamental areas of crime analysis, the book will enable students and law enforcement personnel to better understand criminal behavior, learn the basics of conducting temporal analysis of crime patterns, use spatial analysis to better understand crime, apply research methods to crime analysis, and more successfully evaluate data and information to help predict criminal offending and solve criminal cases. Criminal justice and police academy students will learn how to be skilled and credible crime analysts who play a critical role in the daily operations of law enforcement.

Environmental criminology is a generic label that covers a range of overlapping perspectives. At the core, the various strands of environmental criminology are bound by a common focus on the role that the immediate environment plays in the performance of crime, and a conviction that careful analyses of these environmental influences are the key to the effective investigation, control and prevention of crime. Environmental Crime and Crime Analysis brings together for the first time the key contributions to environmental criminology to comprehensively define the field and synthesize the concepts and ideas surrounding environmental criminology. The chapters are written by leading theorists and practitioners in the field. Each chapter will analyze one of the twelve major elements of environmental criminology and crime analysis. This book will be essential reading for both practitioners and undergraduate and postgraduate students taking courses in this subject.