NCJ Number
251387
Date Published
July 2017
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Since the federal Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program features partnerships among representatives of various non-criminal justice community groups in planning innovative public safety interventions that rely on crime analysis, this report provides such individuals with information on criminal justice data typically used in analyzing crime patterns and locations in a particular community.
Abstract
A review of the development of crime analysis defines the following four primary types of crime analysis: tactical crime analysis, strategic crime analysis, administrative crime analysis, and crime intelligence analysis. The report then reviews the nature of police data as the "heart of crime analysis." Police data consist of calls for service, crime reports, and arrests. Some problems often associated with data access and analysis are then discussed, such as the unavailability of data for the entire time period being studied, the storage of data in multiple systems, and desired data not being saved in computerized databases. A discussion of crime analysis products outlines four stages of crime analysis that yield different types of products. The four stages are 1) the identification of series, patterns, trends, and "hot spots" as they occur; 2) researching and analyzing long-term problems; 3) providing information on demand; and 4) developing and linking local intelligence. Other topics addressed in this report are the analysis of long-term crime problems and key words and phrases in crime analysis. 5 figures and listings of recommended publications, classes, and Internet resources on crime analysis