Crime mapping based on experts’ and residents’ assessments of neighborhood environment

Abstract

This study examines the limitations of existing crime mapping that relies mainly on reported crime data, suggests a crime mapping method based on experts’ and users’ assessments of a neighborhood environment as an alternative approach, and conducts a case study on a real-world site by applying the suggested approach. According to the results of the case analysis, while the areas adjoining arterial roads with heavy pedestrian traffic were shown as high crime risk areas in the crime map based on actual reported crime data, the areas adjoining local roads with low pedestrian traffic were high-risk areas in the crime risk area map based on experts’ and residents' evaluations. This study makes a contribution to the field in that it demonstrates the detailed application process of crime risk area mapping according experts’ and residents' evaluations, compares the results with those of an existing crime map, and finally shows that the former can function as a complement to the latter.