This working paper provides a description of the phases of my PhD study. Drawing on assumptions from various theories of environmental criminology, this study applies various crime mapping methodologies to observe geographic and temporal patterns of crime in the eastern part of the Kenyan capital city, Nairobi. This paper outlines the first completed phase which employs criminal geographic prof...

A defendant is criminally responsible for his action only if he is shown to have engaged in a guilty act-actus reus (eg for larceny, voluntarily taking someone else's property without permission)-while possessing a guilty mind-mens rea (eg knowing that he had taken someone else's property without permission, intending not to return it)-and lacking affirmative defenses (eg the insanity defense o...

This article compares the current states of science and practice regarding spatiotemporal (space+time) crime analysis within intermediateto large-size law enforcement agencies in the Northeastern United States. The contributions of the presented research are two-fold. First, a comprehensive literature review was completed spanning the domains of Criminology/Crime Analysis and GIScience/Cartogra...

A major challenge facing all law-enforcement and intelligence-gathering organizations is accurately and efficiently analyzing the growing volumes of crime data. Cybercrime refers to any crime that involves a computer and network, where computer may or may not play an instrumental part in the commission of the crime. Detection and investigation of cybercrime can likewise be difficult because bus...

GIS technology is credited with substantially improving police crime analysis and related resource allocation. Although GIS has been said to be an efficient and effective technology in policing, limited empirical assessment has been conducted. An examination of functions and a review of the literature suggests four major applications of GIS in policing: computerized crime mapping/crime analysis...

Identifying locations susceptible to crime and the reasons for its occurrence have often been based on the "gut" feelings of police officers and others involved. As a result, those crimes where offences are highly visible may be over policed, whereas those locations truly requiring attention, receive little. In order for crime mapping to be truly meaningful the data held by police should not be...

The spatial analysis of crime and the current focus on hotspots has pushed the area of crime mapping to the fore, especially in regard to high volume offences such as vehicle theft and burglary. Hotspots also have a temporal component, yet police recorded crime databases rarely record the actual time of offence as this is seldom known. Police crime data tends, more often than not, to reflect th...

Crime tends to cluster geographically. This has led to the wide usage of hotspot analysis to identify and visualize crime. Accurately identified crime hotspots can greatly benefit the public by creating accurate threat visualizations, more efficiently allocating police resources, and predicting crime. Yet existing mapping methods usually identify hotspots without considering the underlying corr...

In developing countries, the lack of infrastructure like GPS (Global positioning system) and GIS (Geographic Information system) have hindered the growth of the police department. This paper proposes a simple, useful and cost effective solution for crime mapping. Google cloud resources like satellite data, application and GIS software have been used to develop this application. The developer re...