The spatial behavior of residential burglars Manuel J.J. ... - TU Delft

434 Manuel J.J. López
these suggestions are not supported by our data.
• 2. Can we use the findings of this study and make a geographical application that
the police can use to improve the efficiency of criminal investigations and catch
criminals more rapidly? Yes we can. There are several techniques to establish the
geographic profile of an offender. Some techniques are extremely simple while others
are so complex that they require the utilization of specialized computer software.
However, more complex is not always better. The current research shows that the
simplest technique that establishes the geographic profile of an offender (the circle
technique) is preferable to more complex ones. Presently, there are several commercial
computer systems that produce maps that indicate the most probable area
of offender residence. These systems require considerable financial investment and
police officers must receive specialized training before they are able and allowed to
use the computer software. It is doubtful whether the commercial computer systems
offer any added value. Models that try to improve the results of the circle technique
(e.g., by taking into account one or more distance decay functions, a buffer zone
and/or a specific travel direction) are not likely to improve the result of geographic
profiling. 8
This presentation was limited to the parameters that are related to the awareness
space of the criminal offender. The influence of the opportunity space was left out of the
equation and spared for the presentation of Akkelies van Nes. We did so because the
presentation of van Nes will show that the spatial and physical characteristics of the built
environment (opportunity space) have an important influence on the criminal behavior of
offenders. Offenders, like residential burglars, know their territory well and can indeed be
defined as “space explorers” (Hillier 1996). Can this help us and aid us in our quest for
better and more powerful techniques of geographic profiling? I am convinced that it can.
However, let us first listen to van Nes to gain an understanding of the precise relationship
between criminal opportunity and the spatial characteristics of the built environment.
Literature
Barker M., (2000) The criminal range of small-town burglars, in: D. Canter en L.
Alison, Profiling property crimes, Liverpool: Ashgate Dartmouth, p. 57-73
Brantingham, P. and Brantingham, P. (1981) Environmental Criminology, Sage
Publications, Bevery Hills, Sage.
Brantingham, P. and Brantingham, P. (1984) Patterns in Crime, Macmillan Publishing
Company, New York.
Brantingham, P.L. en P.J. Brantingham, (1993) Nodes, paths and edges: considerations
on the complexity of crime and the physical environment, in: Journal of
Environmental Psychology, nr. 13, p. 3-28
Brantingham, P.L. en P.J. Brantingham, (1995) Criminality of place: crime generators
and crime attractors, European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research,
Vol. 3, nr. 3, p. 5-26.
8 See also the study of Snook (2000) in which students were informed about the principles of distance
decay and the range of operation. Students were able to define search areas on a map that were as
accurate as the computer program Dragnet.