Why Is Crime Mapping Important In The United States

Crime is a part of everyday life all over the world today. There are violent crimes such as murder, rape, and robbery all the way down to small, petty crimes such as vandalism. But in some areas of the world, crime is much worse than in others. Why is that? This paper will focus on understanding hot spots and crime mapping throughout the United States. The topics discussed will be the history of crime mapping, how crime mapping is used today, hot spots in the U.S., social disorganization theories in crime mapping and hot spots, the broken windows theory, crime prevention through neighborhood communication and reporting and analyzing crime. According to professor Sharon Chamard, the history of crime mapping traces its origin back to France
Crime mapping can be used to point out specific crime locations. It can assist law enforcement officers in discovering crime patterns, implementing corrective strategies, optimizing resource allocation and developing crime prevention measures(Hart & Zanderburg, 2009). Crime mapping is especially important in areas where heavy and violent criminal activity is known to occur. This can range anywhere from gang-infested areas or areas along America’s borders where there is heavy organized crime members may try to smuggle drugs or humans and the attempt of terrorists to enter the United States smuggling weapons of mass destruction or other chemical agents. However, it is not enough to just have a crime map. Law enforcement officers need to be able to understand and expand their map-reading skills. As with any type of map, one needs to be able to understand symbols, features, distances, scales, grid coordination, and many other mapping features. Crime-mapping data has its own language. According to Thomas Baker, not understanding the language may interfere with data visualization and interpretation(Baker,