Geography and Crime - Essay Example

Geography and Crime Crime mapping, which presently uses the highly advanced computer software Geographic Information Systems (GIS), is “the process of using a geographic information system to conduct spatial analysis of crime problems and other police-related issues” (Boba 37). A process that saw its beginnings in the early 1800s, crime mapping did not initially strike police authorities, crime analysts and researchers as of significant value to the fight against crimes and criminality not only because there were other crime theories that got their attention but also because preparation of the same was cumbersome, to say the least. With the advent however of powerful and advanced computer systems and technology, these people are taking a second look at crime mapping and have found it to be of utmost benefit to their work. Crime mapping helps police authorities to prevent, suppress and solve crimes as it enables them to locate, at a glance, hot spots in criminal activities and so deploy additional police resources to these areas to deter crimes. Crime mapping, however, affords more profound and more meaningful functions than merely moving off the dots, so to speak, from criminal-prone areas as it has become a very important tool for researchers and analysts in studying the underlying causes of crimes, giving law enforcement agencies and other governmental agencies basis for their strategies in minimizing, if not totally eliminating, these indicia of crimes. The Early Use of Crime Mapping The history of crime mapping reveals that authorities and crime researchers initially failed to realise its importance to crime solution. Crime mapping showed an uneventful beginning and was initially employed only to provide information for locating and visualising certain crimes and other data regarding the population, like educational levels, that make up the components of certain areas in France. In the early 1800s, a lawyer and an ethnographer collaborated to map crimes against persons and property and educational levels of the French population using census and statistics data. What Adriano Balbi and Andre-Michel Guerry discovered from mapping is that northeastern France had a better educated population, property crime prone areas had low incidences of attacks against persons and majority of the population of such areas was well-educated. Other than provide a visual picture of the French census and data, the two failed to see a spatial significance and correlation of the data vis-à-vis, like location, to crimes (Weisburd & McEwen 1998 pp 5-6). Subsequently, a Belgian statistician and astronomer began to see the relevance of the data to crimes. In the 1830s, Lambert-Adolphe Quetelet correlated the levels of education, transportation routes and other data to the crimes themselves. He then postulated that individual peculiarities becomes more and more insignificant whilst general facts prevail as subjects of studies are increased in number. Put in another way, “aggregation of data provides statistical ability.” Quetelet’s primary area of concern was the search for an explanation to the behaviour of society using statistics (Weisburd & McEwen 1998 pp 5-6). The aforementioned individuals, however, failed to significantly bring crime mapping to higher grounds and establish it as an important area of study as others were not impressed of its relevance in solving or understanding the underlying reasons for crimes. Crime mapping did not simply flourish at that time because not only did it entail the difficult work of data collection but several theories concerning crimes emerged that captured the attention of scholars and researchers like the theory of positivist criminology. Positivist criminology was not interested in the underlying causes of crimes but simply attributed and linked them and criminal behaviour to the physical characteristics of people (Weisburd & McEwen 1998 p 7). In the United States, the idea of crime mapping as a possible window to uncovering and understanding the relationship between places and crimes emerged in the early 1900s just as crimes were on the rise in the American cities. Crimes and criminal activities became rampant in urban areas inspiring a group of urban researchers from the University of Chicago to find a link between crimes and environmental factors. With the use of crime mapping, the University of Chicago researchers led by Robert Park pointed out that areas that were more disorganised and had weak social control were more prone to criminality than areas that were well-off and better organised. Using a map of Chicago’s urban areas, a researcher overlaid the locations of gangs in the city and illustrated that these gangs were mostly found in the poor and socially disorganized areas. In the city of Illinois, two researchers, viz. Shaw and Myers, showed using a map that juvenile delinquency flourished most in areas that were characterised by decay, poverty and social break down (Weisburd & McEwen 1998 pp 7-8). The interest that crime mapping engendered in the early 1900s, once again, petered out as sociologists decided to place more importance on criminality per se rather than what motivates them. Interest in crime mapping began to resurge again in the 1960s along with the discovery of computers but began to recede because of the lack of any cohesive and significant interpretations of crime mapping. The advent of more advanced computer technology and a shift in crime perspectives from offender-based approach to a comprehensive perspectives which took account of an offender’s social, physical and organisational environment not only to solve but also to prevent as well, placed crime mapping in the forefront beginning the 1980s (Weisburd & McEwen 1998 p 14). A highly advance computer software called Geographic Information System (GIS), which allows processing of geographically-related data, has replaced physical maps and pins with colored plastic tops in crime mapping. Data, which may take the form of “topography, political boundaries, population density, calls for services, crimes, etc” (Paynich & Hill p 13) are then inputted into the computer system in layers and displayed as such. The user may then have the option of displaying all layers at once or choose one or a combination of layers depending on the objectives of the analysis. Crime Mapping and Solving Crimes through Crime Analysis Today, crime mapping serves as a very important tool in crime analysis, which, on the other hand, is employed in two broad areas: crime prevention, and; crime research. Crime analysis is “the systematic study of crime and disorder problems as well as other police related issues – including sociodemographic, spatial and temporal factors – to assist the police in criminal apprehension, crime and disorder reduction, crime prevention and evaluation” (Boba 2005 p 6). In addition, there are different studies in criminology that rely greatly on crime mapping to further their theories like environmental criminology, the routine activity theory and the rational choice theory. As can be gleaned from Bobas’s definition, crime analysis has four functions: to be able to catch the criminal, to deter and prevent crime; to put crimes under control by decreasing their incidence and; to evaluate the effectiveness of measures used in the first three objectives. The relationship between crime analysis and crime mapping is illustrated by Fig. 1 where crime stands in the center overlapping with all three types of crime analysis namely, strategic crime analysis, tactical crime analysis and administrative crime analysis. The illustration suggests the overwhelming and all-important role that crime mapping plays in crime analysis. Generally, crime mapping helps crime analysis through the following: statistics and other geographical data relative to crime are easier seen and visualised; apparent dissimilar data are linked and made coherent, and; it serves as a graphic aid for presentation of crimes, crime events and crime-related issues (Boba 2005 p 38).. Fig. 1 Relationship between Crime Mapping and Crime Analysis (Source: Boba 38) The different types of crime analysis serve important function in the search for crime solutions, both long-term and short term, and in each of this type crime mapping plays very strategic roles. The implication is crime mapping does not simply direct law enforcement groups to vicinities within their jurisdictions considered as ‘hot spots’ and simply deploy more police personnel there. Crime mapping allows law enforcement to do that but also allows them to do beyond that. Tactical crime analysis, for example, is employed to discover and uncover leads to solve recent spate of crimes. Patterns employed in the commission of certain crimes like methods of entry and exit used, locations where crimes were perpetuated, victims’ characteristics and weapons used are useful data to establish patterns for the police to develop a lead to crimes (Paynich & Hill 2009 p 10). Crime mapping is useful in giving light to the targeted crimes of tactical crime analysis like auto theft and other offences involving vehicles as well as commercial and residential burglary, as it can establish and show patterns of activities in a certain locality that can represent symptoms of patterns of crimes (Boba 2005 38). On the other hand, crime mapping serves the purposes of strategic crime analysis well. The study of strategic crime analysis is geared towards developing adequate, appropriate and effective strategies to combat criminal activities through the collection of a hefty amount of data relative to past crimes and criminal events and drawing therefrom longstanding patterns and other observable conclusions (Paynich & Hill 2009 p 10). Crime mapping simplifies the law enforcement’s job by providing a compact visualisation and graphical representation of all those massive amount of data in just a mere glance. Crime mapping in this instance aids in the long-term study of crimes and crime-related data involving analysis of such data to: find correlations between crimes and the indicia of disorder, viz. high volume of vacant property; determine how law enforcement resources are best allocated to the various locations in their jurisdictions; determine the usual crimes that burgeon in specific locations; estimate information related to crime rates, and; effectively integrate quantitative and qualitative data related to crimes (Boba 2005 p. 39). Finally, crime mapping is useful even in endeavours, like administrative, which is beyond finding direct solutions to criminality like informing and reporting to superiors, other governmental agencies and the public in general, of the efforts being made by their respective law enforcement agencies. Crime mapping allows an effective, comprehensive but concise and understandable form of communication to these sectors for legal, political and practical purposes. The websites, for example, of law enforcement agencies normally post crime maps showing areas of crimes attached to other data like tables and further information (Boba 2005 p. 39). Crime Mapping and Research In the field of research involving criminology, or the study of all aspects of crimes and criminals, crime mapping also serves as a very important tool. Schools of thoughts in that field like environmental criminology, routine activity theory and the rational choice theory all derive significant use of crime mapping. Researches done in the field of criminology because they seek to understand the criminal mind, its motivations and underlying causes that will, in the long run, benefit law enforcement agencies and the general populace. Although these theories give importance to location, routine and choices as chief factors in the commission of the crime, and researchers reject their determinism, the latter nevertheless see places, routines and choices as factors that affect and influence criminal behaviour. Researchers, for example, acknowledge that criminal behaviour are spatial-related as individuals themselves, like criminals, undergo a kind of mental mapping of places or unconsciously interprets environments subjectively and incorporate such interpretation with its objective reality. Although no two persons share exactly the same mental image, there are generalities engendered by sex, race, ethnicity and regional characteristics (Weisburd & McEwen 1998 p. 196). Environmental criminology, as its name implies, stresses on the environment as the primary factor in the commission of a crime as well as what motivates the criminal, the opportunities that make crimes a reality and the levels of protection available to victims at the time the crimes took place. The chief theory posited by environmental criminologists is encapsulated in the Crime Triangle illustrated by Figure 2, where crime is only possible if its Handlers Managers Victim/Target Guardians Fig. 2 The Crime Triangle according to Environmental Criminology three essential elements come together to meet. Thus, if the offender and the victim cross path in a place which provides the former the opportunity to commit the crime, then the crime happens. Since this theory involves spatial analysis, crime mapping is essential here (Boba 2005 p 60; Greene 2007 p. 324). The theory of routine activity is a well-utilised field in empirical criminal research. This school of thought posits that crime happens because of the “convergence in space and time of likely offenders, suitable targets and the absence of capable guardians against crimes” (Chainey & Thompson 2008 p. 136). In a study of youth crime, for example, in Prince George County, it was revealed that crimes and violence occur at a particular time of the day when there is a strong concentration of youth in a certain place whilst there is a comparative diminished presence of adults. Youth hangouts engendered 40% more crimes during after-school times than when there are no classes during weekends. Weekend routine activities themselves offered a different kind of crime perspective and opportunities (Paynich & Hill 2009 p. 111). Since routine activity theory involves substantial data on spatial, geographical and demographic references, the crime mapping tool provides an indispensable role. Another area of research in criminology is the rational choice theory, which delves into the reasons why criminals decide to commit crimes. According to this theory, criminals consider the factors of time constraint, cognitive ability and available information in deciding whether to commit a specific crime or not. Crime mapping is important in this field of research because it allows the researcher to understand and establish the patterns of decision-making made by the criminals during crime commission. In a study of robberies in Phoenix, Arizona, the researchers were able to establish a pattern as to where and when robbers will strike again to commit another robbery by using a GIS crime mapping of the recent spate of robberies in that area (Paynich & Hill 2009 p. 109). Conclusion Crime mapping is an essential tool in the fight against crime because it serves two functions: it enables the law enforcement agencies to prevent and suppress crimes from happening by deploying additional resources to places that crime mapping has determined to be hot spots, and; it prevents and solves crimes by removing the causes and opportunities that make crimes happen after crime mapping has revealed to researchers and analysts the causes that motivate, enable and allow criminals to commit crimes. In the former, the function of crime mapping is short-term and the latter long-term. Crime mapping allows law enforcement authorities to locate the places and localities that are prone to crime and criminal events. Mere application of culled data from police reports to a GIS enabled computer generated map of a certain locality would directly show to them that certain crimes are concentrated in certain vicinities. The most direct solution that these law enforcing authorities could take is put in place more personnel on the beat in those areas. In this sense, crime mapping has fulfilled its short-term function of moving off those dots from the map. Crime mapping, however, is not only capable of fulfilling short-term functions for law enforcement agencies but long-term as well. Sociologists, researchers, criminologists and even law enforcement agencies themselves can make use of crime mapping to establish patterns and other information of crimes and crime-related incidents. Information such as what motivates criminals or what makes certain places or time of the day prone to certain criminal activities will help law enforcement agencies and the government makes informed decisions and strategies to remove and eliminate these indicia of crimes that drive, motivate and give criminals the opportunity to commit crimes. References: Boba, Rachel. Crime Analysis and Crime Mapping. SAGE, 2005. Chainey, Spencer & Thompson, Lisa. Crime Mapping Case Studies: Practice and Research. John Wiley and Sons, 2008. Greene, Jack. The Encyclopedia of Police Science, Volume 1. CRC Press, 2007. Paynich, Rebecca & Hill, Bryan. Fundamentals of Crime Mapping. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2009. Weisburd, David & McEwen, Tom. Crime Mapping and Crime Prevention, Volume 8. Criminal Justice Press, 1998. Read More