The Importance Of Data On Data

1.) Crime Mapping is the use of patterns of criminal activity were identified on pin maps. Colored stick pins that would be stuck on around different places on a map of the city, country, district, precinct, or other area. Different colors corresponded to different types of crimes. This approach, while crude, permitted police to identify problem areas and patterns of criminal activity. The problem was that the maps were one dimensional and could easily get crowded with pins, especially in the case of minor crimes that occurred with great frequency. These maps were also static they could not be easily be changed to serve a different purposes like tracking certain types of crimes over time. Crime mapping has became so common that it has created the Crime Mapping Research Center. The center promotes research, training, and technical help for police agencies around the country and help them in their mapping efforts. Mapping the crimes in and around the city can also help law enforcement protect citizens more effectively in the areas they serve. Any regular map of any city can help display the locations were crimes or concentrations of crimes that have occurred that can be used to help police patrol where they are most needed. Makers in police departments might use harder maps to observe trends in

Hot spots policing revolves around the idea that crime is focused in small problem locales, and that crime can be more efficiently reduced if police concentrate their efforts on those smaller areas (Papachristos & Hureau, 2012). By stopping crime in smaller areas, it is easy to prevent it from growing in larger parts. Activities like patrolling high crime areas and presence of law enforcement officers in the area are performed will reduced crime (Hot spots policing, 2017, What is the focus of the intervention?). “When authors calculated the overall

Although crime has been around for ages, we only started collecting crime data around the 1930’s. Crime statistics show a lot about a country, state, county, etc. Crime can be linked to the environment, behavior of others, and personal experiences, it all depends on how the person deals with the hand they are dealt. Crime data is collected from three sources, which are uniform crime reports (UCR), national incident based reporting system (NIBRS), and national crime victimization survey (NCVS).

It is also important to note that the data packet specified the majority of the juvenile crimes recorded in 2013 were occurring on Fridays (CEBCP, 2013). However, there was no consistent monthly pattern that could be determined. We believe the juveniles would offend on Friday due to the release of school for the weekend. Because there were multiple schools within the hotspot, there would be a large convergence of juveniles at or around the same time. Also, there were multiple transit stops and paths within the hotspot. Crime might have been exacerbated by the transient nature of the area. There was recently a large event that brought approximately 1,000 people to the area (CEBCP, 2013). This would also result in a large convergence of people along the bus stops and bring strangers to the area, aggravating the current crime problem. However, Group 2 specifically focused on the juveniles who were shoplifting clothing from the nearby stores.

The benefits of this application are numerous. For the first time, this type of information is available to the officer on the street in a usable format that today’s officers are comfortable accessing on a device they carry with them daily. Crime mapping data is extremely useful for crime analysis and administrative purposes, however, it is difficult to bring usable crime mapping data to the patrol officer working the street. Since this is a web based app, the data in use by our current crime analyst and RMS systems should be compatible with this

Data around the frequency and type of crimes being reported would be important in noticing

The article I will be critiquing for SOCI 247, is one published by Sky news back in April 2014. As the title explains, the published title expresses crime has fallen to its lowest in 33 years within England and Wales. I will be looking in great depth to identify what Sky news mean by crime and whether they are measuring this as overall crime or whether it is certain aspects of crimes which have been affected by this decrease. I will also refer to different media articles which may have similar aspects and compare statistics to what is relevant within the public at the time of when there are popular crimes.

They may be used to create estimates and probability models, to promote risk assessment, to create knowledge about long-term crime trends, to establish recommendations for public policy, and to establish crime prevention strategies. Thus, governmental reports and statistics of crime constitute an invaluable tool in the study of criminology and they should be used by criminologists to assist them in their academic endeavors and the generation of criminological theory. However, it is essential for criminologists to be aware of the shortcomings of governmental reports. For example, the Uniform Crime reports only records the most serious crime even if “multiple crimes are committed during the same criminal incident” (Pazzani & Tita, 2009, p. 377). The dark numbers of crime is yet another weakness of governmental reports, as those crimes that are not reported to the police and the FBI are not represented in the statistics and reports, and may thus not represent

These particular areas tend to be inner-city, with a high population of ethnic minorities, poverty and crime (Lynn and Elliot, 2000) . Thus not only does the sample and the data it acquires become less representative of the population as a whole, it in turn over represents particular groups of people, and the types of crimes committed; which in turn gives across bias ideologies of criminal groups, criminal areas and the level of crime. As exemplified by Tony Blair who stated gun crime was a problem within the black community (Wintour and Dodd, 2007), these crime statics can give across an ideological bias of the relationship between a particular crime and a particular group. Arguably, higher levels of police are distributed in these areas which in turn creates a cyclical effect whereby ideological biases fuels higher levels of policing, which in turn increases levels of offending in statistics, as described by Sharp and Budd (2005), which consequently fuels the ideological biases as demonstrated by Tony Blair.

Data analysis that can directly impact and reduce crime such as the COMPSTAT conveys a transformation in policing embracing and incorporating some of the more effective strategies. By controlling serious crime police are better composed to

The need for transparency is vital for the success of any program, and this is evident for any predictive policing program. When data is collected by police agencies, these crime areas and surrounding targeted areas need to be checked for accuracy and need follow up reports. When data is inputted from these reports, human error is inevitable. It is important to check the accuracy of these reports because it can lead to the wrong analyses. In the end, the success of predictive policing will all come down to how reliable it is, how different information sources are integrated and how all the data are

Even once data has been collected, there are a number of threats to the validity of the results. As exemplified in Skinns’ research carried out in Doncaster town centre in 1998, displacement can be a common problem. Results showed a 16% decrease in crime rates in Doncaster town centre. However there was evidence of geographical displacement to the surrounding towns that showed a 31% increase in crime rates. This therefore affects the validity of the figures for Doncaster because taking both figures into account the overall reduction in crime is only 6% (Skinns, 1998). It is difficult to measure displacement because the surrounding areas where crime has supposedly been displaced to may show these results because they have not yet been introduced to CCTV cameras. A further threat to validity is the possibility of other changes to the area under surveillance. In Doncaster for instance there were changes in the policing styles and there was introduction of out of town shopping resulting in fewer people in Doncaster town centre. As a result, reductions in crime rate could have been influenced by the amount of people actually present in the area (Coleman & Norris, 2000).

During this essay, I will be discussing recorded crime statistics and victimisation surveys as they are our primary techniques of measuring levels and trends of crime. After briefly explaining what is meant by these terms, I will seek to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in order to question the extent to which they are reliable resources that provide us with accurate information.

An observational study of 1951 crimes committed by 537 offenders “detected” by the U.K police force. After randomly assigning one known linked crime to a random crime, the time and distance between the random pairs was compared to the time and distance between the linked crimes. After running several tests, it was clear that there was a significant difference in the geographical location and time between linked crimes and unlinked crimes of various crime types and categories. However, since due to the nature of the study, the applications for this information is very limited in its current form and needs to be elaborated

Both Goldstein & McEwen, (2009) and Button, Sharples & Harper (2007) studies agree that crime mapping is effective in uncovering and monitoring crime