Studies show that crime increases in areas where street lights are broken.
Crime analysis is the study of crime patterns and probabilities. It focuses on three things: tactical, operational, and strategic studies. Tactical studies focus on immediate community problems such as rape, murder, and robbery; These are problems that need to be resolved immediately. Operational studies focus on potential problems and which places need more or fewer police on duty. Strategic studies are based on potential long-term problems and solutions to those problems.
Criminal analysts may try to determine the motives behind a criminal’s behavior.
These studies are carried out by a criminal analyst. The first part of a crime analyst’s job is to study past crimes and criminals, looking for patterns. This involves profiling criminals, looking at their personality types, what crimes they commit, and how they commit them. People commit crimes for a reason, from boredom to anger to jealousy. Understanding these reasons and knowing all the actions that led to the crime being committed can help a crime analyst begin to see a pattern.
Criminal analysts determine the factors that lead to criminal activity.
The second part of a crime analyst’s job is to use the data developed during the studies to predict future crimes. While the analyst cannot walk down a busy street, pointing out people who are about to commit a crime, it is possible to use the survey data to prevent crime in other ways. For example, studies have shown that the crime rate in an area increases if the street lights are broken and the streets are not well maintained. Crime prevention in this case can be done by cleaning the streets, installing new street lights, and possibly starting a neighborhood watch program.
Crime analysts can see what factors increase crime in specific areas.
The third part of the job is to communicate the results of the studies in a way that makes the information useful. A crime analyst may work with the government, discussing the geographic economic conditions that contribute to crime and discussing ways to alleviate some of those conditions. A crime analyst may also collaborate with local law enforcement agencies, examining current trends in criminal activity. Crime analysts can also make crime prevention presentations to the community and help organize neighborhood watch programs.
Sometimes people commit crimes out of sheer boredom.
A crime analyst’s job is to use past crimes to prevent future crimes. This work is different from the work of an intelligence analyst, which consists mainly of studying the behavior of organized crime, determining the links between criminal organizations and activities. Many people confuse the two jobs. While both professions involve the study and analysis of crime and criminals, the crime analyst deals with a much wider variety of criminal activity, allowing them to predict and assist in the prevention of many other types of crime.