Putting fear of crime on the map: investigating perceptions of crime using geographic information systems

摘要

An emerging trend in both the fields of crime and health analysis is the move to a finer scale of investigation -looking at micro places - what I call the scale of intervention. Although the justification for such research is compelling, impediments are substantial. Data collection is often difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Analytical approaches are often, to be generous, unclear. Even so, and paraphrasing problem-oriented policy strategies, there is a need to break apart "hotspots" - to find out what is going on inside. There is a need to contex-tualize the geography of the hotspot by using existing data differently, while also collecting more appropriate and revealing information. The availability of new geos-patial technologies, especially geographic information system (GIS) use, now makes this type of research more feasible. This book adds to this field by presenting an overview of the theories and methods appropriate for micro space research, with a particular emphasis on (crime-related) perceptual mapping. The structure of the book includes five introductory chapters rich on background setting and citations, before turning to two case studies.