NCJ Number
224651
Date Published
2007
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Findings are presented from a survey of crime analysts to assess the extent to which Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are being used across the crime analysis community in England and Wales.
Abstract
Highlights of findings include the following: (1) the large majority of crime analysts surveyed used GIS in their crime analysis; (2) concerns were expressed over the adequacy of resources in the area of GIS training; (3) GIS tends to be used extensively for descriptive analysis and to a lesser extent for problem-solving; (4) analysts reported that the majority of their problem-solving crime mapping work focused on descriptive analysis of crime patterns, and they were less involved in explanatory GIS analysis; (5) the quality of data available for mapping was also a concern, with just over one-third of respondents indicating that available data were either insufficient or very poor; and (6) the impact of GIS analyses varied between different organizations. The application of GIS and crime mapping techniques is widespread in police forces and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in England and Wales. Figures, tables, and references