CRIME ANALYSIS RESEARCH PACKAGE (CARP) - A STRATEGY FOR THE DISPLAY AND ANALYSIS OF SPATIALLY REFERENCED CRIME DATA (FROM MAPPING AND RELATED APPLICATIONS OF COMPUTERS TO CANADIAN POLICE WORK... - SEE NCJ-47416)

• NCJ Number: 47423
• Author(s): P O HANSON; K E BRASSEL; J J UTANO
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 14 pages
• Corporate Author: National Research Council
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

THE CRIME ANALYSIS RESEARCH PACKAGE (CARP) IS DESCRIBED, WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO DATA ORGANIZATION, DATA AGGREGATION AND MANIPULATION, MAPPING ROUTINES, AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE SPATIAL REFERENCE FILE.

Abstract

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER IS TO DISCUSS A STRATEGY FOR GEOGRAPHICAL CRIME ANALYSIS. THE OBJECTIVE IS TO SHOW HOW LARGE CRIME FILES CAN BE MADE ACCESSIBLE ACCORDING TO CRIME-SPECIFIC SEARCHES, HOW THESE CRIME-SPECIFIC DATA CAN BE AGGREGATED AN INTEGRATED WITH CENSUS DATA, AND HOW BOTH TYPES OF INFORMATION CAN BE LINKED TO A SPATIAL REFERENCE FILE FOR SUBSEQUENT MAPPING AND ANALYSIS. CARP REPRESENTS A STRATEGY TO CARRY OUT CRIME ANALYSIS; IT IS NOT AN ISOLATED SYSTEM, BUT A SET OF INTEGRATED PROGRAMS THAT ARE LINKED TO OTHER SOFTWARE PACKAGES. GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS, SPATIALLY REFERENCED CRIME DATA, AND GEOCODED CRIME DATA ARE DISCUSSED. IT IS NOTED THAT IF CRIME ANALYSIS IS TO BE CAPABLE OF IDENTIFYING PATTERNS OR TRENDS OF CRIME, THE ROLE OF GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION IN RELATION TO CRIME MUST BE RECOGNIZED IN ORDER TO SHOW THE DISTRIBUTION OR PATTERN OF CRIME OVER SPACE. ALSO, THESE TRENDS SHOULD NOT BE STUDIED IN ISOLATION SINCE THEY ARE USUALLY RELATED TO A NUMBER OF VARIABLES, INCLUDING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF OTHER CRIMES. A GEOGRAPHICALLY ORIENTED CRIME ANALYSIS RESEARCH PACKAGE IS DISCUSSED, WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE USE OF CRIME AND CENSUS DATA IN CRIME ANALYSIS, CENSUS ACCESS AND ANALYSIS, CRIME ACCESS AND ANALYSIS, CRIME AND CENSUS DATA, AND THE CARP STRUCTURE. A GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF THE CARP STRUCTURE IS PROVIDED, AS ARE FIGURES DEPICTING VARIOUS DATA CAPTURE AND ANALYSIS NETWORKS. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT THE SUCCESS OF THE CARP STRUCTURE LIES IN THE FACT THAT ACCORDING TO USER SPECIFICATION, ANY CRIME-SPECIFIC PHENOMENON MAY BE RETRIVED FROM A LARGE DATA BASE AND ANY CENSUS DATA MAY BE RETRIEVED IN A SIMILAR FASHION. DEPENDING ON THE NEEDS OF THE USER, THE TWO TYPES OF DATA MAY BE USED SEPARATELY IN DISAGGREGATE ANALYSIS OR INTEGRATED IN A DATA TABLE IN A WAY THAT PERMITS AGGREGATE ANALYSIS. THUS, THE CARP STRUCTURE ATTEMPTS TO OVERCOME SOME OF THE PROBLEMS OF DEALING WITH LARGE FILES. BY PROVIDING THE CRIME ANALYST OR POLICE PLANNER WITH FLEXIBLE AND RAPID ACCESS TO A COMPLEX DATA STRUCTURE, A VARIETY OF ANALYSIS AND DISPLAY OPTIONS ARE POSSIBLE. REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED -- KBL)