Crime data by the numbers: Helpful or harmful?

The ongoing conversation about crime, data, fear of crime, and the combination of all three, has always been a matter of much public debate.

The debate continues in this article from The Guardian: Crime maps, policing and fear. They raise the questions… Does this type of crime data do anything to reduce crime?  What does the data actually tell us? Does it provide tools for neighbourhoods dealing with crime issues? Does this information increase the fear of crime?

“If there is a lesson to be drawn from a history of fear-of-crime research, it is that the more we attempted to measure and analyse fear of crime in attempts to allay fear, the more fearful the public became.” says Murray Lee, director of the Institute of Criminology, Sydney, Australia.

Daniel Bear digs into the complexity of presenting crime data through pin-point maps that “implicitly point the finger at police, when in fact, it’s a much larger set of issues”.

Regardless of the helpfulness or harmfulness of the data… these maps attract a lot of attention and visitors, even from those who are critical of them. In fact, the UK Home Office experienced ‘technical difficulties’ after it released its crime map… it seems like 18 million visits per hour created a bit of website overload.

What are your thoughts? Is crime mapping a ‘smart’ approach to crime prevention?