Deck 12: Tactical Crime Analysis and Hot Spots

Question 1

The importance of identifying hot spots is that both crime theories and practical studies support the idea that focusing police efforts at crime hot spots can effectively reduce crime

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Another term for hot spots is disorder concentrations.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Theories of crime and place can be described as belonging together under the umbrella of psychological criminology

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Park and Burgess proposed a theory of crime known as concentric zone theory

Question 5

Members of the Chicago School, notably Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, explored the theory of social disorganization

Question 6

It could be argued that most research on crime and crime prevention has been focused on how the environment causes people to commit crimes.

Question 7

Eck and Weisburd (1995) have concluded that even if we had a good explanation for why people commit crimes, we would still need a good explanation for criminal events

Question 8

A rational choice perspective provides the basic rationale for defining place as important in crime

Question 9

Crime pattern theory is important in helping us develop an understanding of crime and place

Question 10

The concept of psychological motivation is essential to crime pattern theory

Question 11

Environmental criminologists examine the place and time when the crime happened

Question 12

Social Disorganization Theory suggests that crime occurs when community relationships and local institutions fail or are absent.

Question 13

A Node is a term from transportation that refers to where people travel to and from

Question 14

It is very common for crime analysts to use GIS to combine street maps, data about crime and public disorder and other data.

Question 15

The various maps generated by crime analysts are needed so that police command can go on vacation.

Question 16

In addition to crime mapping approaches, analysts are also able to draw upon spatial statistical testing to help bring about an understanding of general patterns in the crime data

Question 17

With place-based policing, the concern is with much smaller units of geography than the police have typically focused on

Question 18

The importance of identifying hot spots is that both crime theories and practical studies support the idea that focusing police efforts at crime hot spots can ______________.

A) Generate more theories
B) Effectively reduce crime
C) Lead to more overtime for officers
D) Increase crime

Question 19

Analysts often work with geographic information systems (GIS) software to create ______________ to visualize data and identify patterns and hot spots.

A) Colorful maps
B) Travel routes
C) Crime maps
D) Crime lists

Question 20

Theories of crime and place try to offer an understanding of crime in its ______________ environment.

A) Physical or spatial
B) Complex
C) Psychological
D) Daily

Question 21

Theories of crime and place can be described as belonging together under the umbrella of what is called ______________.

A) Psychological criminology
B) Biological criminology
C) Human criminology
D) Environmental criminology

Question 22

Park and Burgess stated that the prevalence of social problems in the inner zones of the city, where social conflict was high, led to a condition they called ______________.

A) Posttraumatic stress disorder
B) Social disorganization
C) Zone of dismal development
D) The inner city

Question 23

Following Shaw and McKay and others, many criminologists have sought to continue the work of these pioneers by attempting to explain or predict crime based on factors ______________ to the individual.

A) Internal
B) Intrinsic
C) Inherent
D) External

Question 24

One strain of theories-the ecological or areal tradition of criminology-is concerned with the environmental, contextual, community, physical, or situational correlates of _______.

A) Crime
B) Human relationships
C) Mind-body relationship
D) Spiritual beliefs

Question 25

Throughout the history of criminology, theories of crime focused on why certain types of people ______________ .

A) Are sex offenders
B) Have bad genes
C) Commit crime
D) Are so aggressive

Question 26

Offender theories should eventually tell us how people come to be criminal offenders and why they either act or desist from acting as offenders; however, criminological theories do not provide adequate theories about ______________.

A) Who commits crime, when they will act and where they will offend
B) Who the victims are
C) Why people rob banks
D) When they decide to plan a crime

Question 27

There is growing evidence that ______________can have a dramatic and immediate impact on specific crime problems.

A) Extra patrol officers
B) More theories
C) Event prevention strategies
D) Forensic science

Question 28

A rational choice perspective suggests that offenders will select ______________and define means to achieve their goals in a manner that can be explained.

A) Targets
B) Comrades
C) Modus operandi
D) Reasonable ideas

Question 29

In routine activities theory, first, there must be a ______________.

A) Special target
B) Hardened criminal
C) Soft victim
D) Motivated offender

Question 30

Crime pattern theory combines rational choice and routine activities theory to help explain the ______________.

A) Reason why criminals are often men
B) Distribution of crime across places
C) Differences between property and violent crime
D) Reason why victims are usually women

Question 31

According to crime pattern theory, targets come to the attention of offenders because offenders, like everyone else, engage in ______________.

A) Routine activities
B) Meandering around town
C) Hapless activity
D) Careful searching for targets out of town

Question 32

Crime pattern theory links places with desirable targets and the context within which they are found by focusing on how _______ come to the attention of potential offenders.

A) Shopping malls
B) Easy targets
C) Places
D) Vulnerable victims

Question 33

Given a set of high-crime locations, a crime pattern theorist would focus on how offenders discover and gain access to the place; on the other hand, a routine activities theorist would focus instead on the ______________ and the possible absence of controllers.

A) Lack of psychological motivators
B) Behaviors of the targets
C) Time of night
D) Absence of choice

Question 34

Several theories help explain why crime occurs in some places and not others; For instance, the environmental criminology approach focuses certain environmental factors including space (geography), time, law, offender and ______________.

A) Psychoanalytic concepts
B) The amount of potential gain the crime
C) Target or victim
D) Rational thoughts

Question 35

Crime opportunity theory suggests that when offenders want to commit a crime, they look for an ______________.

A) A difficult and challenging situation
B) Opportunity to prove their masculinity
C) Friends to help out
D) Opportunity or a practical target

Question 36

Social disorganization theory suggests that crime occurs when community relationships and local institutions ______________ .

A) Fail or are absent
B) Are efficient and effective
C) Care for the people in the community
D) Have gained too much power

Question 37

Crime pattern theory considers how people and things involved in crime move about in space and time and this theory fits well with the routine activities approach and involves three main concepts: nodes, paths and ______________ .

A) Curves
B) Edges
C) Township boundaries
D) Country borders

Question 38

Nodes is a term from transportation, which refers to where people travel to and from; according to crime pattern theory and routine activities theory, offenders search for crime targets around personal activity nodes, such as ______________, the paths among them.

A) Favorite vacation spots
B) Exotic travel destinations
C) Home, school and entertainment areas
D) Places in towns on the other side of the state

Question 39

The paths people take in their everyday activities are closely related to where they fall victim to ______________.

A) Seductions
B) Crime
C) Peer pressure
D) Influence of parents and siblings

Question 40

Some crimes are more likely to occur at the edges-or boundaries of areas-because people from different ______________come together at edges.

A) Classes
B) Ethnic backgrounds
C) Neighborhoods who do not know each other
D) Social strata

Question 41

Today, because of advancing technology, hot spots can be identified using maps and GIS as well as ______________.

A) Social media sites
B) Polygraph exams
C) Blogs
D) Statistical tests

Question 42

Using GIS, crime analysts can create a variety of ______________ that visualize different aspects of a particular location.

A) Maps
B) Puzzles
C) Charts
D) Graphs

Question 43

Crime maps that detect ______________are useful when they answer analytical questions based on crime theories and subsequently guide appropriate police action.

A) Low crime areas
B) Convenience stores
C) High-crime areas
D) Guns and explosives

Question 44

Repeat ______________can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as demonstrating repeat incidents at a single location.

A) Addresses point maps
B) Offenders house lists
C) Critical incident charts
D) Political corruption lists

Question 45

A dot map can show a _______where crime problems have occurred.

A) Neighborhood which has no crime
B) Particular place, such as a store or gas station
C) Region that has multiple crimes
D) State that is crime prone

Question 46

Line maps are important because they show where the _______are along streets.

A) Bars and liquor stores
B) Best night spots
C) Hot spots
D) Police stations

Question 47

The maps which show that the hot spots cover broader areas and include neighborhoods are called _______.

A) Pushpin maps
B) Dot maps
C) Repeat addresses maps
D) Ellipse and choropleth maps

Question 48

Grid thematic mapping has to do with constructing a map with _______that are thematically shaded.

A) Many colors
B) Uniform grids (or quadrats)
C) Dots
D) Neighborhoods

Question 49

Kernel density estimation (KDE) is regarded as the most suitable ______________for visualizing crime data.

A) Bar graph
B) Table or figure
C) Spatial analysis technique
D) Simple map

Question 50

This approach involves determining the mean center of the series and drawing rectangles or ellipses around the mean center showing the areas that represent one or two standard deviations away from the mean; this approach is known as ______________.

A) Standard deviation analysis
B) Cluster points maps
C) Random chance maps
D) Algorithm analysis

Question 51

Grid cell mapping analysis is a method that is sometimes described as ______________.

A) Repeat address mapping
B) Choropleth mapping
C) Density analysis
D) Charts and tables

Question 52

Kernel density interpolation allows for_______; that is, comparisons can be made between two different crime types or crimes at two different time periods.

A) Comparative mapping
B) Differentiating theories
C) Pinpointing crime addresses
D) Comparative density analysis

Question 53

Statistical tests can objectively help analysts determine the presence of high-crime areas or ______________.

A) Hot spots
B) Crime-ridden neighborhoods
C) Precincts
D) Hot situations

Question 54

There are at least two methods to test for clustering: the nearest-neighbor index (NNI) & the test for ______________.

A) Statistical sampling
B) Spatial autocorrelation
C) Algebraic calculations
D) Crime centers

Question 55

Hot spots policing covers a range of police responses that all share in common: a focus of resources on the locations where crime is ______________.

A) Lowest
B) Going down
C) Highly concentrated
D) Only on the edges