NCJ Number
76071
Journal
American Behavioral Scientist Volume: 20 Issue: 2 Dated: (November/December 1976) Pages: 261-273
Date Published
1976
Length
13 pages
Annotation
A process for mapping the incidence of crime using a cone of resolution which progressively reduces the area of analysis from the national level to one encompassing a single census tract is described.
Abstract
Crime mapping is generally done to analyze the social indicators of criminal behavior, rather than to provide a tactical analysis for law enforcement officials. A cone of resolution for murder and burglary rates was determined using data from the 1971 Uniform Crime Report for national, Florida, and Tallahasee, Fla. census tract areas. Crime occurrence was not uniformly distributed, but clustered into areas of high and low rates of occurrence. Moreover, the murder and burglary patterns had little in common. Nationally, a high murder-rate region was found in the Southeast and a high burglary-rate region was identified in the Southwest. Murder and burglary patterns were also differentiated at the State level. Two census tracts in Tallahasee were analyzed. Crime incidence was clearly resolved into high and low areas, and provided a basis for studying environmental aspects of crime in these areas. Mapping block groups within the census tracts indicated that crime incidence varied from city block to city block. Due to the relative rarity of murder in Tallahasee, analysis at the tract and block levels was limited to burglary. Block level analysis offers opportunities for pinpointing trouble spots for police operations, defensible space analysis, and the identification of target areas for further research. Copies of national, State, city, census tract, and block area resolution maps and 23 references are included.