Crime Mapping the Map Portrays

Crime Mapping

The map portrays an unknown community or area/section of that community, with the points where burglary to motor vehicle occurred marked, along with other features as a tool for analyzing the rate and placement of these burglaries. The time period represented and analyzed in the map is the single month of January, 2006. The line features of the map are much the same as they are on any other map; roads, rivers, and railroad track are all represented on the map, giving a detailed picture of the layout of his community. The point features on the map are much more unique to the type of map this is -- the location of each motor vehicle burglary is noted by a blue car icon, the addresses of parolees by a yellow symbol of a head, and known drug houses appear as small red house icons. It is the interrelation of these point features that can be analyzed for useful results. All of the point features, or at least the icons that represent them on this map, are polygons. The other major polygonal features on this map are the parks that dot the area, as well as the broad river that runs down the middle of the mapped section of this community.

The primary data on the map includes the roads, rivers, parks, and railroads -- all of the permanent features of the community that objectively and certainly exist. The same is true of both the represented addresses/locations of the parolees and the reported motor vehicle burglaries, both of which would be a matter of official and public record. Though much secondary data can be arrived at by analysis of the relationship between the various elements -- both point and line features -- of the map, very little of it is included on the map itself. The location of drug houses is a debatable element in this regard; if there were any direct, primary evidence that the houses were indeed places where drugs were made and/or distributed, then the odds are likely that these houses would have already been broken up by police. Most likely, it was secondary data -- that is, analysis -- that led to these houses' placement on the map.

There are several elements that could be useful to this map that are not included. For example, the division of the community into different areas (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) might provide some more clues to the rate/placement of the burglaries. Similarly, median incomes/home prices for each given area might be important elements. There is very little about the map that is not pertinent, however; though there appears to be little relation between the burglaries and the location of suspected drug houses, this is important to know and recognize, and leaving the drug houses off the map would eliminate this knowledge. Other information that could usefully be included in this map includes some basic details about the individual burglaries -- whether cars were broken into or left unlocked (especially important in isolated incidents), and the value of whatever goods were stolen. Also, the type(s) of crimes that the parolees were convicted of would shed some light on the obvious relation between some of these parolees and nearby burglaries.