Does crime hotspots overlap with crime harmspots? New analytical approach for crime prevention and policing
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to introduce crime harmspots as a new analytical approach measuring the societal impact of crime at places. The crime harm approach has a clear practical applicability in policing and crime prevention.
Increasing utilisation of geo-localised crime data and validity of law of crime concentration at places enables us to measure societal impact of crime at the level of individual street segments. The current research is based on geo-localised crime data for medium-sized Czech city for a period of three years.
The resulting map of crime harm enables us to compare harmspots of crime with hotspots of crime and thus to identify places with highest demand for crime prevention. The analytical approach evaluation and measuring societal impact of crime is according to our opinion suitable both for praxis and for experimental criminological research.