Course Description
This course provides an introduction to crime analysis and crime mapping and examines types of techniques used to study crime and disorder patterns and problems in law enforcement today. It covers the theory, data collection methods, and statistics used as well as the history of and career opportunities for crime analysis.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to
- Discuss crime analysis and crime mapping
- Examine types of techniques used to study crime and disorder patterns and problems in law enforcement today
- Identify the theory, data collection methods, and statistics used in crime analysis
- Summarize the history of and career opportunities for crime analysis
Week 1
Lecture: Fundamentals of Crime Analysis
Outcomes
- Determine the various types of analysis that are involved within a police department including crime and operations analysis, intelligence analysis, and investigative analysis
- Recognize that the main focus of the unit will be on crime and operations analysis
- Identify the basic terms used within the crime analysis field
- Discuss the three types of crime analysis (tactical, strategic, and administrative)
- Identify the crime analysis process
Week 2
Lecture: Introduction and Analysis with Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Outcomes
- Identify the various components that are used in a geographic information system GIS (points, lines, and boundaries)
- Determine the various types of analysis that can be performed with a GIS
- Interpret the relationship between various data sets that can be correlated with a visual representation that a GIS provides
Week 3
Lecture: Theory of Crime Analysis and How it Supports Law Enforcement
Outcomes
- Determine the various theories that help to support the use of crime analysis techniques
- Employ the concepts of community policing and problem solving (SARA Model) to solve community issues
- Apply the concepts of crime analysis to various police issues such as investigations, community policing, and directed patrol
- Identify concepts of Intelligence Led Policing and the managerial concepts of COMPSTAT
Week 4
Lecture: Crime Analysis Data
Outcomes
- Identify the various internal and external sources of data
- Define the crime analysis process and the steps involved
- Determine the best methods for retrieving data that has been collected
- Determine basic methods for analyzing data
Week 5
Lecture: Tactical Crime Analysis
Outcomes
- Determine the methods for identifying crime patterns
- Discuss the who, what, where, when, why and how of determining crime patterns
- Determine the best method of predicting the next time and date of a crime in a series
Week 6
Lecture: Analyzing Crime Patterns that are Crimes Against Persons
Outcomes
- Identify the various statistics needed to predict the occurrence of a future violent crime that has a defined time (both the first and last time are the same)
- Determine the probable next day that an offense within a crime pattern might occur
- Determine the probable time to deploy personnel with both a 68% and a 95% probability of catching the criminal
- Determine methods that can be employed to determine the geography where the deployment should take place
Week 7
Lecture: Analyzing Crime Patterns that Involve Property Crimes
Outcomes
- Identify the various statistics needed to predict the occurrence of a future property crime that has a defined start and end time (the first and last time are different)
- Identify the use of both the midpoint and weighted average techniques to apply statistics that will be used in this module
- Determine the probable next day that an offense within a crime pattern might occur
- Determine the probable time to deploy personnel with both a 68% and a 95% probability of catching the criminal
- Determine methods that can be employed to determine the geography where the deployment should take place
Week 8
Lecture: Strategic and Administrative Crime Analysis
Outcomes
- Identify the difference between tactical, strategic, and administrative analysis
- Determine the best methods for comparing crime and similar data
- Determine how to use some descriptive statistics such as percent change, percent of total and crime per 1,000
The course description, objectives and learning outcomes are subject to change without notice based on enhancements made to the course. April 2012
