ANALYSIS OF CRIME

CJS 380 Crime Science:Principles, Strategies and Practice of

Crime Prevention and Reduction©

J.A. Gilmer

What is Crime Analysis“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 (1) criminal apprehension, (2) crime and disorder reduction, (3) crime prevention, and (4) evaluation.”

Rachel Boba

Boba, Rachel (2009) Crime Analysis with Crime Mapping, 2nd Ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, p. 3.

Components of Crime Analysis• Qualitative data and methods– Non-numerical data to discover underlying meanings and patterns

(e.g., field research, content analysis)• Quantitative data and methods– Statistical analysis of numerical or categorical data

• Sociodemographic information– Personal characteristics of individuals or groups (gender,

race/ethnicity, income, age, education, etc.)• Spatial information– Crime locations relative to features of the environment

• Temporal information– Long-term (annual, seasonal), short-term (monthly, weekly, daily)

patterns

Development of Crime Analysis

• Vollmer’s vision – professionalize policing

• Police deployment– Used pin maps for calls for

service in police beats • MO (modus operandi) analysis– Tool in offender identification

and apprehensionAugust Vollmer

(1876-1955)

Chief of Police, Berkeley, CA, 1905-1932

Other Factors in Development of CA

• Crime analysis unit to systematically review all daily reports (O.W. Wilson – Vollmer’s protégé)

• Response time effectiveness challenged(Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment)

• Detective units highly unproductive(RAND, 1975. The Criminal Investigation Process.)

• Routinely identify habitual offenders(Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program)

• Rise and development of computer-aided technology

Professionalizing Crime Analysis

• 1980 – IALEIA –

• 1989—SCCA (Society of Certified Crime Analysts)– Now part or IALEIA

• 1990—IACA–

Int’l Assoc of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts

Int’l Assoc of Crime Analysts

Law Enforcement Analytic Standards

IACA Certification

Challenges of Crime Analysis• Computerized data for police record-keeping is

not always easily accessed for analytic purposes• Usually limited to the specific jurisdiction• ‘Turf’ issues hinder sharing across jurisdictions• Inter-jurisdictional sharing issues– Software compatibility– Differential reporting/recording of incidents

• Limited to information the PD already collects– Non-routine data collection (surveys, interviews etc.)

are difficult to obtain permission/resources to conduct

Types of Crime Analysis

• Administrative—Analytic reports for executives, legislators, public

• Investigative—part of a criminal investigation, e.g., offender or geographic profiling

• Tactical—daily summaries/compilations (incidents, arrests, FIRs, CFS, etc.) to determine a crime pattern or series

• Strategic—longer-term (months) analysis of crime problem area or pattern

‘Hot Spots’ and ‘Burning Times’

Hot Spots• Crime concentration/cluster• Distinct geographic location

– address, corner, ‘place’– Less than a ‘high crime area’

• Hot spot underlying causes– Crime Generators: numbers of

people interacting in one place– Crime Attractors: locations

known for crime opportunity– Crime Enablers: little or no

regulation of behavior

Burning Times• Repeated moments of high

crime in a temporal cycle• Not analyzed as often as hot

spots• Affected by ‘routine

activities’ (daily, weekly)

3 X 3 Hotspot Matrix – ConceptsTemporal

• Diffused –various time of day or day of week

• Focused—occurring at various but regular times throughout period

• Acute—occurring at regular frequency in narrow window

Spatial• Dispersed—fairly evenly

spread• Clustered—most incidents

occurring at a few places• Hotpoint—single location

that triggers most incidents

Jerry Ratcliffe

“…the aim of this work is to enable operational police officers to include spatial and temporal factors in their thinking. Although there may be some disagreement between officers as to the exact nature of a crime hotspot, chances are that the discussion will still generate positive thinking about the best operational tactic to employ to combat the particular hotspot problem.” Ratcliffe, J.H. (2004) “The Hotspot Matrix: A Framework forthe Spatio-Temporal Targeting of Crime Reduction”. Police Practice and Research 5(1):5–23

Hotspot Matrix and Crime Reduction

Jerry Ratcliffe. The Hotspot Matrix as a framework for the spatio-temporal targeting of crime reduction. Paper from the 11th International Symposium on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, 20th June 2003, held in Cincinnati, OH. Used by permission.

Hotspot Matrix and Crime Reduction

Jerry Ratcliffe. The Hotspot Matrix as a framework for the spatio-temporal targeting of crime reduction. Paper from the 11th International Symposium on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, 20th June 2003, held in Cincinnati, OH. Used by permission.

Hotspot Matrix and Crime Reduction

Jerry Ratcliffe. The Hotspot Matrix as a framework for the spatio-temporal targeting of crime reduction. Paper from the 11th International Symposium on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, 20th June 2003, held in Cincinnati, OH. Used by permission.

Hotspot Matrix and Crime Reduction

Jerry Ratcliffe. The Hotspot Matrix as a framework for the spatio-temporal targeting of crime reduction. Paper from the 11th International Symposium on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, 20th June 2003, held in Cincinnati, OH. Used by permission.

Strategic Crime Analysis• Use more ‘immediate’ data from tactical crime

analysis to identify/analyze problems to generate more innovative solutions (responses)– Community problems may include both criminal activity

and quality of life issues• Crime analysis – the most important element of the

problem-solving process.“Crime analysis often focuses on generating reports on overall reported crime or searching for patterns to solve individual crimes. For problem-solving to be effective, analysis must be a more mainstream police activity than is traditionally the case. Although there is no one specific method or structure to best accomplish this, the analysis function must be central to the problem-solving process.” Bynum, T. S. (2001). Using Analysis for Problem Solving: A Guidebook for Law Enforcement. Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Study Points

• What are the components of crime analysis?• How can crime analysis be used to further the

goals of policing?• What are the different types of crime analysis

and when is each appropriate?• What is Ratcliffe’s Hotspot Matrix and how

can/should it be used?• How does strategic crime analysis fit with

community policing?