NCJ Number
177580
Date Published
1998
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This paper describes some measures developed by the New South Wales (NSW) Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research to describe the dispersion of crime across regions.
Abstract
The value of such measures is that policy makers can determine whether crime prevention and policing activity for individual offenses should be targeted at a limited number of identifiable regions or aimed more broadly across the whole State. The paper describes graphical methods and summary indexes for measuring dispersion in both increases in crime rates from one time period to another and crime rates for a single time period, using NSW Local Government Area data from 1995 and 1996. The report describes changes in the number of crime incidents for the 10 major offense categories, rate change between two time periods and rate in a single time period. The methods described in this paper can be applied to any set of offense categories at any level of disaggregation and can be tailored to the needs of individual users. Figures, tables, notes