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EN
The article discusses the issue of digital technologies use for practical applications of the principles of modern ecologic currents in criminology. The phenomenon of crime is not distributed evenly in time and space. Detailed analysis of this regularity is possible owing to crime map making. The tradition of such map making originates in the 19th century and roots from the cartographic school. Their representatives conducted analyses basing on the data coming from French police statistics. More advanced studies on spatial distribution of crime, whose authors created theoretical conceptions attempting at explaining this phenomenon, originate from the Chicago school. In our times, with the advancement of computerisation, technical capabilities of modern computers and availability of good and reliable software, crime maps are becoming an even more easily accessible and effective tool in the analysis of the phenomenon of crime. Geographic information system (GIS) is the technology currently employed for spatial analyses. It allows introducing, storing, processing and visualising geographical data. Geocoding technology enables translation to geographic coordinates and digital map making containing information on the criminal events in a given city. GIS is used in criminological analyses in two main areas: digital crime map making and geographic profiling. Crime mapping is a tool for spatial analyses of criminal incidents which consists in putting together the time and place of crime to investigate spatial patterns of criminal behaviours and hot spots. It also enables to analyse criminal incidents according to various spatial variables e.g. to compare crime scene locations with locations like bars or schools, with demographic data concerning investigated areas etc. The idea of crime mapping has its roots in theoretical assumptions of environmental criminology which seeks relations between crime and its environmental and geographic determinants. Studies on crime scene locations are related mainly to the idea of hot spots, that is places where more criminal incidents than the average are reported. Crime maps are a useful tool which enables the analysts equipped with adequate criminological knowledge to seek the reasons for concentration of criminal activity in the area. In practice, digital maps are used by the police to obtain geographical data about a given area and to manage police units. Advanced use of GIS is made in everyday work of police forces in the USA and UK. Maps can also allow the data on crime statistics on a given area to be accessed by local communities. Geographic profiling is another GIS application enabling use of criminological knowledge. It allows to establish the most likely estimated place of residence of serial offenders. A profile is made based on information concerning crime location and other places of significance to the incident (eg. place where the corpse was abandoned).
EN
The article presents research constituting an attempt at verification of theories historically originating from the Chicago School of Sociology and the ecological approach within criminology, the supporters of which focus on the criminal offence itself and on its environmental conditions. This group of theories belongs to the environmental criminology. Criminological deliberations on the crime, carried out in the spirit of the contemporary environmental trend, are based on the assumption that the occurrence of a criminal offence is determined by four necessary elements: the legal norm that is breached, the offender, the object of the crime (victim or target) as well as the time and space in which the crime is committed. The object of interest of the environmental criminology is in the first place the space and time dimension of the act, in which the remaining elements meet. The discussed research was based on the rou-tine activity theory, the rational choice perspective and the crime pattern theory. The basic theoretical assumption is that the volume of crime is influenced by the number of crime opportunities. According to the routine activity theory, a crime opportunity occurs at the moment of convergence of a likely offender and a suitable target in the absence of a capable guardian. The first hypothesis assumes that the crime opportunity is a necessary condition for occurrence of a criminal offence, including that related to violence. The second hypothesis was based on the assumption that crime opportunities are not evenly distributed in time and space. We should therefore assume that not every object (person or thing) is a suitable target in the event of a concrete criminal act. Not every environment constitutes scenery conducive to commitment of a given crime. In other words, there are areas with higher concentration of crime. The third hypothesis was related to an assumption of the crime patterns concept relating to the offenders’ daily life patterns. It says that perpetrators search for suitable targets in areas that are well-known to them – in the vicinity of their workplace, school or place of their leisure activities. The offender’s journey to crime covers relatively small distances, avoiding only the area closest to their place of residence (the so-called buffer zone). The spatial and social characteristics were examined in chosen territorial units being three districts of a large city – Warsaw. The research area covered the jurisdiction of the Dis-trict Court for the city of Warsaw Praga-Północ, i.e. the administrative boundary precincts of the following districts: Praga Północ, Białołęka and Targówek. The verification of the afore-mentioned hypotheses took place based on an analysis of court records concerning 694 offenders, convicted in 2006 in criminal procedures of acts belonging to the jurisdiction of the said court.
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