Crime Prevention & Analysis

Catalog description

This lecture-lab course provides an introduction to a geographic information system (GIS) with knowledge of crime hot spots, crime mapping, and spatial analysis. Topics include: ecological theories of crime, crime and place, crime epidemics, displacement and diffusion, journey to crime, spatial aspects of individual crimes, and socio-economic status and racial dynamics of place. The lab portion of the course provides students with hands-on training in crime mapping using geographic information system (GIS) software. Upon completion of the course, students should understand the basic theories of place-based crime, how to analyze real crime data, and how to visualize criminogenic information in a variety of ways, and how racial, socio-economic, and environmental dynamics of the neighborhood could influence crime. Approved for Compass Curriculum: Inclusiveness-Diversity & Power Dynamics (US/Local); Navigate; Sustainability. Prer., Junior standing.