GST 201 – Spatial Analysis of Crime�Unit 7 – Journey to Crime�� � �

Name of Author: Professor Phil Canter and Thomas Mueller, Ph.D., GIS

Title of Author: Geospatial Technology Professors

Email if author: Mueller@calu.edu

Based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DUE 1304591, DUE 164409, DUE 1700496, DUE 1937177, Due 1938717 DUE 1937237, 2030206 and 2015927. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

PowerPoint Lectures 1 - 6

• The GeoTech Center wants to thank Professor Phil Canter for the use of his lecture notes in Lecture 1 – 6.
• Tom Mueller made some changes and added a few slides

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Journey to Crime

• Journey to crime researches the distance offenders travel to commit a crime.
• Offender’s journey to crime influenced by three factors:

Target Attractiveness

Spatial Attractiveness

Target Backcloth

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Journey to Crime - Target Attractiveness

• A space with high value targets.
• Higher Value Target Area = Higher Payoffs. Thus offenders will tend travel to the higher values target area.
• Offenders will travel greater distances to reach these target areas.

Journey to Crime - Spatial Attractiveness

• Spaces that are known by the offender or located close together
• Results in shorter travel distances.
• Offenders will not likely target attractive areas if the area is not spatially attractive.

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Journey to Crime - Target Backcloth

• Spatial arrangement of targets or victims within a certain space.
• Crimes will not be uniformly distributed within an offender’s “hunting area”.
• Offender’s journey to crime travel influenced by victim’s activity space.
• Used to explain serial offenders’ journey to crime

Research on Journey to Crime

• Consistently found distance decay in distance traveled.
• Buffer distance around an offender’s home area.
• Offender distances vary depending on offender and crime characteristics.

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Research on Journey to Crime

• Offenders travel greater distances to commit property crimes.
• Greater distances traveled for armed robbery compared to unarmed robbery.
• Inner city trips are shorter.
• Offenders in rural areas travel greater distances.
• Homogeneous areas result in longer travel trips.

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Research on Journey to Crime

• Females travel shorter distances than males.
• Blacks travel shorter distances than Whites.
• Juveniles travel shorter distances.
• Lower income offenders travel shorter distances.
• Trip distances are greater when suspect is unknown to victim.
• Trip distances increase as an offender’s criminal history increases.

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Journey to Crime

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IDENTIFYING THE “ACTIVITY

SPACE” OF CRIMINAL OFFENDERS

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Activity Space

An area delineating an offender’s awareness space

That is part of the offender’s Mental Map

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Activity Space is defined by…

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• Nodes or Anchor Points
• Place of Residence
• Place of Employment
• Shopping
• Social activity sites
• Links or Paths
• Paths or routes connecting nodes
• Area surrounding nodes and links

Offender’s Activity Space

Home

Girlfriend’s

House

School

Weekend

Job

Node

Link

Activity

Space

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Burglary

Why study Journey to Crime?

• Better understanding how offender select targets.
• Identify interdiction points along offender travel routes (patrol saturation).
• Identify possible crime witnesses located within offender’s activity space.
• Determine where (and when) offender will target next crime.

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CM_Lab_Buffering

• Students should complete CM_Lab_Buffering

Why use Buffering in Crime Mapping

• Create a Buffer around a school – Drug Free Zone
• Create a Buffer around a bar – Identify Nuisance bars

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10/19/2021

See GeoTech Center website (https://geotechcenter.org) �for additional Model Courses and other curriculum resources. �����Note: some content is a derivative of other CC authors���

Author: Phil Canter and Thomas Mueller, Ph.D., GISP

Author Title

Email of author: Mueller@calu.edu

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09-09-2020 V7 (Bold 12)