NCJ Number
189109
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 49 Issue: 5 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 30-34
Date Published
June 2001
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Crime mapping provides the means for police leaders to deploy their resources in the proper manner and achieve intervention and crime prevention goals, especially for burglary.
Abstract
For the past decade, law enforcement agencies across the Nation have averaged a 14 percent clearance rate for burglary. Crime mapping is now an essential part of crime analysis. Computerized virtual pin maps, rather than the old pin maps, can be developed on computer screens using electronic icons that can be rapidly stored and updated. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computerized mapping system that produces information layering, detailed graphics and various databases that share a common geography. The data layers may include, but are not necessarily limited to, census tracts, physical geography, and street crime data in its spatial context. Multidimensional views of mapping data can be superimposed in layered format and presented through software programs like the ArcView GIS system. Computer mapping offers the opportunity to take fragmented pieces of information and provide that data to police officers in the field. Crime mapping organizes criminal information into meaningful data that can be shared regardless of previous assignments. Crime potential forecasts attempt to determine future burglary events. Forecasting depends primarily on historical analysis, cyclical, periodic, or special events. Crime trend forecasts are the identification of the prevailing tendency or general movement of burglary frequencies for a particular geographic area over a specified time span. Computer burglary correlations can identify burglary suspects by systematically matching the suspect’s vehicle and modus operandi information from crime reports and information from offender based computer files. 1 table.