crime analysis Flashcards
What is the definition of crime analysis?
Use of qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze crime data
Includes sociodemographic, spatial, and temporal information.
What are the two main types of data used in crime analysis?
- Quantitative data
- Qualitative data
What does GIS stand for in the context of crime mapping?
Geographic Information System
Facilitates visual and statistical analyses.
What historical event marked the beginning of modern crime analysis?
The establishment of the first modern police force
What was the significance of the Metropolitan Police Act?
first modern police force in London
What role did August Vollmer play in crime analysis?
Contributions to the development of crime analysis techniques
What is Compstat?
Data and mapping-driven police management strategy
What is a key challenge for crime analysis?
Institutionalizing crime analysis into day-to-day police practice
What is the problem analysis triangle?
Problems (crimes) happen when a suitable offender and victim are together at a suitable location
breaks down settings & understand how crime opportunities can occur
Place is an important theoretical concept for crime analysts.
what are the outer components of the problem analysis triangle
- guardians: protect victims/targets by watching over them or removing them from particular settings
- managers: people who are responsible for places, such as hotels, retail stores, apartment buildings, and homes
- handlers: people who know potential offenders and are in positions that allow them to monitor and/or control potential offenders’ actions
What does the Rational Choice Theory involve?
Choices based on risks and rewards
Define Crime Pattern Theory.
AKA geometric theory of crime; activity space overlap creates more opportunity for crime
What does the term ‘repeat victimization’ refer to?
Reoccurrence of crime in the same places or against the same people
What are the categories of Situational Crime Prevention?
- Increase effort
- Increase risks
- Reduce rewards
- Reduce provocations
- Remove excuses
What is spatial displacement in the context of crime?
Shifting of an activity in one area to another
What does the term ‘garbage in, garbage out’ refer to in data analysis?
Importance of data quality
What are the four types of crime analysis?
- Crime intelligence analysis
- Tactical crime analysis
- Strategic crime analysis
- Administrative crime analysis
What is the focus of Tactical Crime Analysis?
Short-term development of patrol and investigative priorities.
a short-term analysis of crime patterns and trends to help law enforcement respond to recent crimes
what is crime intelligence analysis
Analysis about people involved in crimes
A proactive process that examines details of crime that have already happened
what is strategic crime analysis
process that helps identify and address long-term crime issues
what is administrative crime analysis
Analysis directed toward the administrative needs of the police agency, its government, and its community
What is a data matrix?
A rectangular table of variables and units from which data have been collected
What is a relational database?
A data matrix that has been organized for searching and analyzing data through a computer
What does the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) provide?
Criminal justice information to law enforcement and national security partners
What is open source intelligence (OSINT)?
Unclassified info that is publicly available
What is the significance of the 80/20 rule in crime analysis?
80% of outcomes are the result of only 20% of the related causes
signifies that a small percentage of locations, individuals, or times (around 20%) are responsible for a large majority (around 80%) of criminal activity
What is the main goal of Environmental Criminology?
Understand patterns of crime that are predictable to prevent them
What is the meaning of near repeat victimization?
Nonvictimized places near places that have been victimized
What is the role of feedback and evaluation in the crime analysis process?
Should inform and improve the entire process
Fill in the blank: The analysis about people involved in crimes is known as _______.
Crime intelligence analysis
True or False: Crime analysis grew rapidly in the USA from 1900-1970.
False
Crime analysis grew slowly due to corruption and costs.
What is a Geographic Information System (GIS)?
A system used to capture, store, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data
GIS integrates hardware, software, and data for understanding spatial relationships.
What are the three types of vector data?
- Point feature
- Line feature
- Polygon feature
Define point feature in vector data.
A discrete location depicted by a symbol or label like a pin on a map.
What does a line feature represent?
A real-world element represented by a line or a set of lines, such as rivers or highways.
How is a polygon feature illustrated?
As a multisided figure with a closed set of lines, representing areas like city boundaries or parks.
What is raster data used for?
To display features on the earth’s surface through an arrangement of grid cells or pixels.
What is the purpose of projections in GIS?
To accurately display geographic data from a round surface onto a two-dimensional format.
What coordinate systems are typically used in GIS?
- Latitude and longitude
- X-Y coordinates
- State plane coordinates
What is geocoding?
The process of locating events based on address when latitude and longitude are not available.
What are the two approaches to spatial analysis?
- Descriptive mapping
- Analytical mapping
True or False: A single symbol (point) map obscures repeat incident locations.
True
What is the function of buffers in mapping?
To illustrate relative distances between map features.
What does graduated mapping depict?
Features using different sizes or colors based on particular characteristics.
Used to account for multiple incidents at same locations
Fill in the blank: _______ mapping is a technique for representing data summarized by statistical or administrative areas.
Choropleth
List the four statistical classifications used in methods for statistical classification.
- Equal interval classification
- Natural breaks classification
- Quantile classification
- Manual method classification
What is the purpose of interactive creative mapping?
To provide simplified geographic information systems to novice users over the internet.
What are the steps for density mapping?
- Determining the geographic area of analysis
- Placing an arbitrary grid over the geographic area
- Designating search radius distance to compute statistics
- Shading cells according to their score
What is the standard model of policing focused on?
Enforcing the law in a broad and reactive way using police resources.
What does the place-based approach aim to do?
Prevent and deter crime in small geographic areas that experience high crime rates.
What is hot spots policing?
A place-based policing strategy implementing traditional methods in areas with disproportionately high crime.
What is the central strategy of the person-focused approach?
Focused deterrence, which aims to deter a small number of prolific offenders.
What does the problem-solving approach utilize?
The problem analysis triangle to understand and address long-term problems.
What does the SARA model stand for?
- Scanning
- Analysis
- Response
- Assessment
What is the role of crime analysts in the community-based approach?
To provide statistical information about crime and assist in analyzing community feedback.
What is the focus of disorder policing?
Enhancing the community’s ability to exercise informal social controls to maintain order.
OR
police attempt to impose order through strict enforcement
Define intelligence-led policing (ILP).
A model where the intelligence function is central to crime reduction and prevention efforts.
What is predictive policing?
The collection and analysis of data to predict future crime locations and offenders.
What is the goal of crime analysis?
To examine problematic activity at different levels, rather than just individual incidents.
What does the scanning step in the SARA problem-solving process include?
Identifying and prioritizing crime, disorder, and quality-of-life problems.
What is the analysis step focused on?
Understanding the problem activity and identifying potential responses based on research.
What is the response step in the SARA model?
Selecting appropriate responses based on the analysis results and previous successful methods.
What is assessed in the assessment step of the SARA process?
Whether the response was successful in addressing the identified problem.
