GIS and Crime

There is some controversy in the crime field in regards to how important/useful environmental considerations are. Some crime specialists believe geography/the environment don’t play a big role.

Example of GIS/Crime:

Greed/Envy/Wrath maps of the US:

Greed shows average income compared with number of people below poverty line

Envy – total thefts per capita

Wrath – number of violent crimes per capita

Routine activities theory (RAT):

Theory that crime is based on routines – both of the criminals and the targets. This theory highlights temporal and socioeconomic aspects of crime, but does not consider the spatial, and thus geographical aspect.

Crime Pattern Theory:

Crimes tend to happen in certain neighborhoods because that’s where the criminals live.

Environmental criminology

Environmental criminology is a related sub-discipline that considers the spatial distribution of offenses and offenders.

Marauders vs. Commuters

Example of geography use in crime:

Picton murders – Kim Rossmo figured out that the Picton murders were commuted by a serial killer, but it took 5 years to actually figure out it was Picton, because nobody would listen to him. Kim is a pioneer of geographic profiling.