Composed Cognitive Maps

Composed cognitive maps are a tool based on grounded theory and on Lynch's urban model of cognitive maps, which allow the transfer of information from ethnographic situations to general patterns, and to the so-called spatial dynamics. In criminological matters, they have been applied in the context of environmental and criminology of place to identify criminal situations, criminal patterns, and spatial dynamics of crime. The latter concept has allowed reliable diagnoses for the design of criminal policies. Their advantages are compared with traditional criminometric methods. It introduces a brief compilation of the existing literature on the subject. In a special way, this chapter shows how composed cognitive maps allowed the measurement of drug trafficking networks, police intelligence, and, above all, crime reduction.

INVESTIGATING LIGHT AND CRIME USING AMBIENT LIGHT LEVEL

A recent study investigated the influence of lighting on crime by considering the effect of change in ambient light level on crimes recorded in three US cities for the ten-year period 2010 to 2019. The results suggested a significant increase in robbery after dark, but did not suggest significant change in for any other type of crime. The current study was conducted to validate this by considering crimes recorded in three different US cities. This analysis confirmed the statistically significant increase in robbery after dark. These data do not suggest that change in ambient light level has a practically relevant effect on overall crime counts: in other words, the potential benefit of lighting for crime reduction is limited.

Design And Implementation Of A Geospatial Dashboard For Crime Analysis And Prediction

<div>Dashboard has been around for a long time, and many have been developed as a governing and monitoring tool in city management, such as crime monitoring. However, the majority of crime dashboards function as a visualization tool and few of them has been specifically developed for crime analysis and prediction.</div><div>This thesis focuses on the development of geospatially-enabled crime dashboards with spatial analysis capabilities for supporting crime analysis and prediction. A prototype has been designed and implemented to support the understanding of crime events for crime reduction efforts. This dashboard will assist policy makers and leaders in crime fighting by visualizing basic statistical information of crimes, revealing their spatial and temporal patterns, identifying crime clusters, and analyzing relationships between crimes and other factors. Based on the criteria developed in this thesis, the prototype confirmed its ability of enhancing the understanding of crime events.<br></div>

THE CONFLICT IN THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE CRIMINAL AND THE VICTIM AND THE INSTITUTE OF MEDIATION

The current paper presents the offender-victim interaction in the criminogenic situation and some ways to prevent and resolve the conflicts. Mediation is considered in comparative plan with other approaches aimed at protecting victims of crime, protection of their rights and crime reduction.

THE CONFLICT IN THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE CRIMINAL AND THE VICTIM AND THE INSTITUTE OF MEDIATION

The current paper presents the offender-victim interaction in the criminogenic situation and some ways to prevent and resolve the conflicts. Mediation is considered in comparative plan with other approaches aimed at protecting victims of crime, protection of their rights and crime reduction.

Municipal police support for harm reduction services in officer-led referrals of people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico

Background Police constitute a structural determinant of health and HIV risk of people who inject drugs (PWID), and negative encounters with law enforcement present significant barriers to PWID access to harm reduction services. Conversely, police may facilitate access via officer-led referrals, potentiating prevention of HIV, overdose, and drug-related harms. We aimed to identify police characteristics associated with support for officer-led referrals to addiction treatment services and syringe service programs (SSP). We hypothesized that officers who believe harm reduction services are contradictory to policing priorities in terms of safety and crime reduction will be less likely to support police referrals. Methods Between January and June 2018, police officers (n = 305) in Tijuana, Mexico, completed self-administered surveys about referrals to harm reduction services during the 24-month follow-up visit as part of the SHIELD police training and longitudinal cohort study. Log-binomial regression was used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios and model policing characteristics and attitudes related to officers’ support for including addiction treatment and SSP in referrals. Results Respondents were primarily male (89%), patrol officers (86%) with a median age of 38 years (IQR 33–43). Overall, 89% endorsed referral to addiction services, whereas 53% endorsed SSP as acceptable targets of referrals. Officers endorsing addiction services were less likely to be assigned to high drug use districts (adjusted prevalence ratio [APR] = 0.50, 95% CI 0.24, 1.08) and more likely to agree that methadone programs reduce crime (APR = 4.66, 95% CI 2.05, 9.18) than officers who did not support addiction services. Officers endorsing SSPs were younger (adjusted prevalence ratio [APR] = 0.96 95% CI 0.93, 0.98), less likely to be assigned to high drug use districts (APR = 0.50, 95% CI 0.29, 0.87), more likely to believe that methadone programs reduce crime (APR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.30, 4.55), and less likely to believe that SSPs increase risk of needlestick injury for police (APR = 0.44, 0.27, 0.71). Conclusions Beliefs related to the occupational impact of harm reduction services in terms of officer safety and crime reduction are associated with support for referral to related harm reduction services. Efforts to deflect PWID from carceral systems toward harm reduction by frontline police should include measures to improve officer knowledge and attitudes about harm reduction services as they relate to occupational safety and law enforcement priorities. Trial Registration: NCT02444403.

22. Searching for the causes of crime

This chapter addresses the causes of crime, the exploration of which has been a high priority within criminology as the main way of explaining crime and of informing responses to crime. The chapter begins by considering how criminologists understand crime and the causes of crime, comparing interpretivism with positivism as ways of exploring and thinking about crime. A central motivation for identifying causes is to validate the factors targeted through criminological responses such as sentencing, crime reduction and prevention activity, and policy. The dominance of positivist experimentation within criminology and the associated search for causes has been re-animated in the 21st century by the growing popularity of experimental criminology in the US, most notably the ‘what works’ experimental method of evaluating crime prevention programmes. The chapter then looks at contemporary challenges to the experimental ‘what works’ approach, namely realistic evaluation, the theory of change model, and chaos theory.

Where should police forces target their residential burglary reduction efforts? Using official victimisation data to predict burglary incidences at the neighbourhood level

Expected crime rates that enable police forces to contrast recorded and anticipated spatial patterns of crime victimisation offer a valuable tool in evaluating the under-reporting of crime and inform/guide crime reduction initiatives. Prior to this study, police forces had no access to expected burglary maps at the neighbourhood level covering all parts of England and Wales. Drawing on analysis of the Crime Survey for England and Wales and employing a population terrain modelling approach, this paper utilises household and area characteristics to predict the mean residential burglary incidences per 1000 population across all neighbourhoods in England and Wales. The analysis identifies distinct differences in recorded and expected neighbourhood burglary incidences at the Output Area level, providing a catalyst for stimulating further reflection by police officers and crime analysts.