Hot Routes: Developing a New Technique for the Spatial Analysis of Crime

The use of hotspot mapping techniques such as KDE to represent the geographical spread of linear events can be problematic. Network-constrained data (for example transport-related crime) require a different approach to visualize concentration. We propose a methodology called Hot Routes, which measures the risk distribution of crime along a linear network by calculating the rate of crimes per section of road. This method has been designed for everyday crime analysts, and requires only a Geographical Information System (GIS), and suitable data to calculate. A demonstration is provided using crime data collected from London bus routes

A Spatial Approach to Surveying Crime‐problematic Areas at the Street Level

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.Reaching far beyond the realm of geography and its related disciplines, spatial analysis and visualization tools now actively support the decision-making processes of law enforcement agencies. Interactive mapping of crime outperforms the previously manual and laborious querying of crime databases. Using burglary and robbery events reported in the urban city of Manchester, England, we illustrate the utility of graphical methods for interactive analysis and visualization of event data. These novel surveillance techniques provide insight into offending characteristics and changes in the offending process in ways that cannot be replicated by traditional crime investigative methods. We present a step-wise methodology for computing the intensity of aggregated crime events which can potentially accelerate law enforcers’ decision making processes by mapping concentrations of crime in near real time

Neurosis - Continuum [ Architecture As Urban Therapy ]

This dissertation is rooted within the personal struggle to understand the absurdity of spaces which exist within Woodstock, Cape Town. The project draws a psychological connection between the site and its absurdities, implying that spatial absurdity is the effect of problems of the personified "sitemind". By visualizing what are called "neurosis spaces" the expressions of site-mind anxieties, and arranging them into a speculative site, the project creates a space of analogy. A space for which architecture becomes a therapy. Architecture in application thereby embodies therapy, forming an intervention which itself enacts the speculative analogy. The proposal is therefore seated firmly between the real and the imagined. A victim Offender Rehabilitation center mediates the analogy physically creating an architecture that plays on spatial experience and programming to create a place of therapy, a machine of sublimation

The existence of Roma in youth justice discourses

Critical scholars have repeatedly emphasised the importance of how various categories become constructed. This paper discusses the ‘existence’ of ‘the other’ in youth justice discourses. Drawing on qualitative analysis of police, prosecution, youth court and social services discourses, this paper discusses the positioning of migrant youths, referred to youth court on suspicion of having committed an offence. The talk particularly focuses on Czech and Slovak Roma in two legal departments in Belgium. I discuss in what types of cases and discourses the case of Roma (i.e. references to ethnicity and popular images of the ‘Roma culture’) exists and in what instances it seizes to exist. Particular attention is directed to the constitutions, circularity and contexts of ethnicising discourses throughout youth justice trajectories, as well as their performative nature

Time-Space Analysis of Terrorist Planning Cycles

Terrorism is among the largest threats to national and international security in today\u27s global community. Acts of terrorism have resulted economic and societal impacts throughout the world. Improvements in technology have increased the capacity of terrorists to maximize the impact of their actions. The increasing influence and prevalence of terrorist activity has demanded research focused on the prevention of terrorist acts. A known method of terrorism prevention is uncovering a plot during its planning and preparation phase. Terrorist planning can be evaluated based on how actors move through space and time prior to the execution of their attack. General patterns and insights into terrorist planning activities can offer the intelligence, defense, and law enforcement communities with information on how where terrorists can be located in relationship to their target throughout their planning cycle. This movement within a planning cycle can be easily visualized and analyzed through the use of a Time-Space Signature. This research assesses the movements of actors involved in past terrorist activities in order to determine how terrorists move in space and time during their planning cycle

What makes long crime trips worth undertaking? Balancing costs and benefits in burglars’ journey to crime

This study taps into rational choice theory and scrutinizes the assumption that profit maximization and effort minimization govern decisions related to burglary behaviour and the journey to crime. It treats distance as one of the major costs in the burglary target selection process and uses community characteristics to gain insight into how the anticipation of particular benefits favours the incremental costs of long crime trips. 2,387 burglary trips were extracted from police records and analysed using negative binomial regression analysis. The journey-to-crime distance was found to increase when burglaries were committed in communities containing motorways, dense road networks, and being ethnically heterogeneous. The journey-to-crime distance was found to decrease when densely populated areas and communities with high clearance rates are targeted

Bus Robberies in Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Solutions for Safe Travel

This study examines the spatial patterns and other situational determinants leading to the high number of bus robberies in Belo Horizonte. Main research questions include patterns of robberies, spatial concentration, locations prone to robberies, and environmental characteristics therein. This study also provides a variety of safety measures based on the Situational Crime Prevention approach. The Rapid Assessment Methodology (RAM) was employed using both quantitative and qualitative data. It involves spatial analysis, direct observation of hot spots using a safety audit protocol, and focus group discussions with key participants. Bus robberies involve minimum risk and low detection and arrest. The “hottest products” to be stolen include electronic devices and cash. The robberies occur at specific times and locations depending on opportunity. As many crimes go unreported, police data have inaccuracies. Therefore, it is impossible to verify the exact location of the robberies. This study concludes that for safe travel preventive measure should focus on reducing crime opportunities. A collaborative effort is needed from agencies and individuals alike. Further research should focus on examining why the majority of bus robberies are concentrated in only two main bus routes. Are these hot spots just recent spikes or are they chronic

Visualizing geographies of perceived safety : an exploration of Muslim women's experiences in public space

"May 2014."Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Matthew Foulkes.Research on fear of crime and on intersectionality have both been growing within geography in recent decades. To explore the geography of fear as it pertains to the intersecting social identities of gender and religion, Muslim women in the United States are a unique group for study . Muslim women are easily identifiable as members of a minority group because their religious coverings, such as the hijab. This study uses in-depth interviews, sketch maps, and photovoice to explore women's geographies of perceived safety in Columbia, Missouri, and the factors that affect these perceptions. It focuses on the experiences of Muslim women with and without the hijab. The findings show that women's general perceptions of safety were highly influenced by environmental factors, social contact, and secondhand accounts. These general factors affecting perceived safety confirmed the results of previous studies on women's fear. Geographies of perceived safety were unique for Muslim women with a hijab. Their perceptions were influenced greatly by stereotyping, discrimination, and street harassment. The experiences of women who wear a hijab were unique in that they described experiencing less sexual harassment than their peers without a hijab, but much more religiously-focused harassment, and more street harassment overall.Includes bibliographical references (pages 115-118)