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Criminal justice researchers and crime geographers have long recognized the importance of understanding where crimes happen as well as to whom and by whom. Although past research often focused on violent crimes, calls for research into non-lethal white-collar crimes emerged in the 1970s. Today, identity theft is among the fastest growing white-collar crimes in the United States, although official recognition of it as a criminal act is a relatively recent development. Remaining largely unmet, the need for white-collar crime research has greatly intensified considering the escalating identity theft problem. Furthermore, many studies conclude that identity theft will continue to rise due to increasing technology-driven offenses via the Internet and widespread use of digital consumer databases. Utilizing theoretical framework established in crime geography, GIS mapping and spatial statistics are employed to produce a spatial analysis of identity theft in the U.S. from 2002-2006. Distinct regional variations, such as high rates in the western and southwestern states, and low rates in New England and the central plains states, are identified for identity theft as reported by the FTC. Significant spatial patterns of identity theft victims alongside social demographic variables are also revealed in order to better understand the regional patterns that may indicate underlying social indicators contributing to identity theft. Potential social variables, such as race/ethnicity and urban-rural populations, are shown to have similar patterns that may be directly associated with U.S. identity theft victims. To date, no in-depth geographic studies exist on the geographic patterns of identity theft, although numerous existing studies attempt basic spatial pattern recognition and propose the need for better spatial interpretation. This thesis is the first empirical study on the geographies of identity theft. It fills in a void in the literature by revealing significant geographical patterns of identity theft in the digital age, attempts at understanding the social factors driving the patterns, and examines some of the social implications of identity theft.

Dubbed the "most murderous" and "deadliest" city in the United States during 2006, 2007 and 2008, New Orleans has wrestled with crime and murder since its founding in 1718. Following Hurricane Katrina the city saw an increase in the murder rate despite a sharp decrease in population. The focus of this project was to map homicide data trends in the city of New Orleans over a period of seven years, 2002 to 2008, and compare spatial and temporal patterns via GIS. NOPD homicide location data were geocoded and analyzed in ESRI's ArcGIS geospatial software. Methodologies of hotspot detection included point maps, choropleth graduated color maps, and quartic kernel density maps. The project's goal was to not only detect hotspots, but to create a synoptic view of shifting homicide trends throughout the city of New Orleans, highlighting the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

The aim of the thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the importance of parks for urban quality, particularly for safety. This is achieved in two ways; first, by assessing parks’ impact on the perceived quality of the urban environment (whether it is incorporated into housing prices or not) in Stockholm. Second, the study investigates whether safety in parks may be assessed using principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) using a high-crime park in Stockholm’s inner city. The thesis starts with an introduction to the theme, with a brief discussion of background theory, literature review, the study area and the methods. Then, it reports the results of the articles included in the thesis and discusses their main contributions to the field of research. A mixed methods approach utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Regression models and a Geographic Information System (GIS) were used in Paper I, which aims to clarify how park proximity affects housing prices and, when considering residential properties and park type, how crime rates in parks affect housing prices. Findings show that the further away an apartment is located from a park, the higher the discount on its price effect, but this effect (dependent on the park type), as an accumulated measure of parks, lowers prices or is negligible. Paper II assesses the use and adequacy of CPTED principles to guide the assessment of safety conditions of an urban park. The historical development of CPTED is presented followed by an analysis of a case study, Tantolunden, in Stockholm. Site observations, crime mapping, people count and interviews were conducted. Results show many entrances in this particular park defy the principles of access control and in turn impose limitations on park maintenance. Findings also show that interrupted sight lines create limited surveillance. The paper concludes by identifying the potentialities and challenges of CPTED principles when applied to safety in parks. Findings presented in this thesis are relevant for many stakeholders in society as results show the variation in crime and safety in urban parks, and the way they can be assessed and tackled. / <p>QC 20151023</p> / Safety for whom? Housing market, safety and distributive justice

Studien syftar till att undersöka hur den svenska polismyndigheten använder sig av Geografiska informationssystem (GIS). Den digitala förändringen är intensiv vilket leder till möjligheter och utmaningar gällande den brottsbekämpning som råder i Sverige. För att vara följsam i den förändring som sker behövs det nya och fler effektiva metoder. GIS inom polisen är förekommande i länder som bland annat USA, England och Nederländerna, medan Sveriges arbete med GIS inom polismyndigheten är allt mer diffust. De slutsatser som har kunnat dras är att GIS kan innebära stora möjligheter för polisen, de står dock inför utmaningar för att på ett effektivt sätt utnyttja GIS. För att GIS ska användas på ett effektivt sätt inom polisen krävs det att det finns kunskap, samverkan och datakvalité. Datainsamlingen som studien bygger på är semistrukturerade intervjuer, surveyundersökningar och vetenskapliga texter. Intervjuerna innefattar personer inom polismyndigheten som ansvarar över IT-stöd samt personer som tekniskt behandlar GIS. Forskningen är utformad som en case studie där intervjuer, surveyundersökningar och vetenskapliga texter ska ge stöd för att besvara studiens forskningsfrågor. / This study is based on how the Swedish police use the geographical information system (GIS). The digital transformation is intense which leads to a lot of opportunities and challenges regarding the law enforcement for the Swedish police. To follow the big change it needs new and more effective methods. For the police in other countries, for example, USA, Canada, and the Netherlands it is common to use GIS as a tool, and to see how the Swedish police are working it all comes unclear. The conclusion that can be made from the study is that GIS can be great opportunities for the police, but they face challenges to use GIS effectively. In order for GIS to be used effectively in the police, there is a need for knowledge, collaboration and data quality. The data collection on which the study is based is semi-structured interviews, survey studies and scientific texts. The interviews include people in the police department who are in charge of IT and people who are technically working with GIS. The research is designed as a case study in which interviews, survey studies and scientific texts will provide support to answer the study's research questions.

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Geographic Information Systems (GIS) development in crime analyses encourages sustainable platforms within various types of users and decision makers. Since patterns of crime incidents are pinpointed and analyzed in crime mapping, accurate data acquisition must be considered as a key concept to construct a successful GIS application. Ankara City Police Department utilizes a semi-automated geocoding interface in which crime incidents including offenders and victims are pinpointed. However, this system has some accuracy errors during geocoding, because in this process point based data are located in the center of street line segments, and this may cause position errors up to 200 meters. Therefore, additional data editing must be done to reach a reasonable accuracy. In this context, real time data editing provides opportunity to gain time instead of expanding the GIS database within received hardcopy files from each police station. As the crime incidents occur daily, online editing must be used to maintain such an accurate and efficient spatial database. In this study, for effective and accurate geocoding, a Web based data acquisition method is proposed. This online entry system enables real-time editing for GIS repository. In this way this study aims to provide a fast and reliable data acquisition system by constructing a multi participant platform enabling online data entry from each police station.

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This dissertation addresses the validation of the hypothesis there is a general sense that violence and security perception influence the use of sustainable travel modes. The research characterizes the issue of security perception among University of São Paulo (Brazil) users and identifies the way the sense of security and violence occurrences are related to the travel mode choice. An online survey on security perception and the way its participants access the campus was conducted. The target relationships were explored by Decision Tree (DT) algorithms. An initial exploratory analysis revealed occurrences of violence and reports of insecurity perception were strongly correlated on streets around the campus. The time analysis of violence distribution presented the incidents concentrated at night and during the week. The study also showed that security perception variation according to gender and travel mode choice is less sensitive to security perception than to the occurrence of violence, or type of affiliation to the university. Finally, DT algorithms explored the relation of spatially treated variables (i.e. route length to the university, density of violence occurrences and insecurity reports on the route) to mode choice. The results also showed that distance to the campus was relevant to the mode choice only in routes not strongly considered unsafe. In routes of higher insecurity perception, the share of nonmotorized modes was more expressive and the largest participation of sustainable modes was on routes with high incidence of violence. Since it is counterintuitive to assume numerous walking trips are a consequence of violence, the opposite was considered as a possible explanation to those results. The present study reinforces the need for increased surveillance in regions with high participation of non-motorized modes, for preventing users from shifting to motorized modes. / Esta dissertação busca comprovar a hipótese de que a violência e a percepção de segurança influenciam o uso de modos de transporte sustentáveis. A pesquisa caracteriza a questão da percepção de segurança entre os usuários da Universidade de São Paulo (Brasil), em São Carlos, e identifica como o sentimento de segurança pessoal e a violência estão relacionados com a escolha do modo de viagem. Foi realizada uma pesquisa on-line sobre a percepção de segurança dos usuários da universidade e a forma como eles acessam o campus. As interações foram exploradas por algoritmos de Árvore de Decisão (AD). Uma análise exploratória inicial mostrou que ocorrências de violência e relatos de insegurança estavam fortemente correlacionados nos trechos de via ao redor do campus. A análise temporal da distribuição da violência apresentou os incidentes concentrados à noite e durante os dias de semana. Além disso, a pesquisa mostrou que a percepção de segurança variou de acordo com o gênero e a escolha modal é menos sensível à percepção de segurança do que a ocorrência de violência, ou vinculação com a universidade. Por fim, os algoritmos de AD foram executados para explorar a relação das variáveis tratadas espacialmente (ou seja, o comprimento da rota até o campus, além da densidade de ocorrências e relatos de insegurança na rota) com a escolha modal. O último resultado obtido na análise foi que a distância até a universidade era relevante para a escolha modal apenas em rotas onde não há numerosos relatos de insegurança. A participação dos modos não motorizados foi mais expressiva nas rotas com maior percepção de insegurança, e em rotas com alta incidência de violência. Como não é razoável supor que mais viagens a pé são uma consequência dos roubos e sim o oposto, o estudo reforça a importância de aumentar a segurança nas regiões de alta incidência de viagens não motorizadas, de forma a não incentivar a migração destes usuários para modos motorizados.

<p>The population of Sweden is ageing as in almost every European country. Improved medical progresses and treatment options lead to a decreasing mortality at older ages, increasing life expectance and an advanced health of the elderly. Due to these improvements and the so called ‘baby- boomers’, a great number of persons born in the 1940s that will reach retirement age the coming years, their total number will increase strongly in the near future all over Sweden. To enable these elderly to live a normal, active and independent life as long as possible activities, services and special housing with improved accessibility and meeting places for elderly has to be provided. Thus, for local authorities it is essential to know the actual and favoured living conditions as well as environments of elderly. This study aims therefore to investigate the characteristic of preferred residential neighbourhoods of the elderly in the city of Norrköping. The demographic, social and crime situation was examined for the districts of the city using several methods from both Statistics and GIS. Statistical methods included classifications, indexes or indicators and bivariate correlations. A model was developed to combine demographic and social data to characterise districts. GIS was to a major extent used as a visualisation tool. Choropleth mapping and Kernel density estimations were used to illustrate distribution of elderly and crime. Preliminary global statistical tests were used to verify clustering in the crime data set. An accessibility analysis was conducted with the help of the network analyst tool. Results indicate that districts experiencing the highest total numbers and proportion of elderly are very distributed throughout the city of Norrköping. They are, with some exceptions, characterised by lower social status. Four districts of the city show considerable evidences of demographic ageing, experiencing a population pyramid formed like an urn. Beside districts where elderly constitute a bigger proportion of the population, they tend to live in districts characterised by a relatively high proportion of young adults aged between 20 and 29. Crime analyses have shown crime clusters in different parts of the city. A high proportion of elderly faces a high crime level in the districts Gamla staden, Nordantill and Hageby. However, it has been proved that only some hot spots of crime within these areas contribute to the high crime level. Districts such as Skarphagen, Såpkullen, Smedby and Linö, all (except Såpkullen) situated on the outskirts of the city, hold high or middle elderly and a low crime level. Accessibility analyses have shown that elderly aged over 80 do not live significant closer to health centres and the public transport stops compared to the age groups 20 – 65 and inhabitants aged between 65 and 79.</p>