Tracking crime patterns: An exploratory data analysis of mass transit systems and criminal events.

摘要

The relationship between mass transit systems and criminal activity has been under researched. This thesis explores the relationship between mass transit systems and crime in Burnaby, B.C. by relying on the orienting strategy of environmental criminology and utilizing the criminal event perspective. Environmental criminology and the criminal event perspective advocate an interactional approach to understanding criminal activity. Contrary to traditional social research, neither deduction nor induction was the primary method employed; instead, abduction was applied to investigate patterns within the data. To explore the relationship between mass transit systems and criminal events, data from the City of Burnaby included all calls for service for assault, commercial break and enter, mischief, possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, and residential break and enter. Exploratory data analysis was employed to study these crime types by a visual inspection of their spatial occurrence using geographical information system (GIS) techniques. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).