Crime Map, Essay Example

Crime Map 1

Fig 1. Linden New Jersey Map

Boundaries play a significant role in defining neighborhoods. Every neighbor has a unique characteristic that is different from the other which majorly relies on the housing, employment, income levels and this determines the crime in the boundary. Roads separate high crime and low crime neighbors. There are also separated by an ocean or inlet, and though both of them are next to the ocean, their crime rates differ based on other characteristics. Waterfront mainly used for recreation in the high crime area and it is more industrial for the low crime boundary. The neighborhoods have high population which highly depends on the executive, management, and professionalism for their employment. They also depend majorly on private automobiles or carpooling when driving to work. The high crime boundary has middle-income earners which makes it be a moderate income boundary while the low crime boundary has upper-middle-income earners which makes it an above average income boundary. For the high crime boundary, there is a higher level of childhood poverty while there is a lower rate of childhood poverty for the children in the low crime boundary.

In the high crime boundary, we can use the routine activity theory to describe it. People are usually motivated to meet what they want to, and thus they will go to any extremes to possess something. This determines the prevalent and recurrent activities to meet their needs as individuals. This explains why crimes are many, and they persist. The rational choice theory explains the low crime boundaries in that criminal behavior is a choice. People have good sense and can make sound judgment regardless of their situations. Human in these boundaries are responsible, and they make moral choices; thus the crime rates are low.

Crime Map 2

This section focuses on American Canyon, a city in the Southern Napo county of America. The crimes of focus in this area will be burglary, petty theft, grand theft, rapes, and robbery. At one point, all of these crimes are shown to have happened in American Canyon through their impact on the people and how often the crimes vary depending on the crime. Cases of petty and grand theft for example where vehicles are stolen are reflected to have occurred recurrently. Robbery and burglary have not been portrayed to occur recurrently with the cases of death as a result of the crimes have been shown to be very minimal.

Fig. 2, Crime in American Canyon

American Canyon is a city that was incorporated in 1992 and formed after world war two. It is located under the rural rolling agricultural hills of the Southern Napo. From where it is located, it is surrounded from all sides a green belt which makes the city favorable. It is a city that has mixed residential and business activities. Its people engage in corning of masonry products and mezetta. Other people are involved in rental businesses while others engage in real estate among other economic activities carried out in that area. In terms of residence, the people are organized into households and families that stay together in that area. The area though not highly populated has a good number of people living in it. Some of these people are the ones conducting business in the area. People, therefore, have some means of income from the activities they carry out.

According to Brantingham and Brantingham 1993, the level of concentration and occurrence of crimes varies depending on the edges, nodes, and pathways where the crimes are carried out. People will consider areas that are highly concentrated around shopping centers or other social places which forms the node areas in crime. In relation to edges, people who want to take part in crime will focus on the areas that are open, those areas that are a distance from others and along major roads. They consider pathways like along the roads where the people are passing through frequently.

The crime rates on the American Canyon are highly concentrated in areas such as around schools, restaurants, shopping centers and recreational areas like the tourist attraction sites. These areas attract criminals mostly because they have a high population compared to any other areas. Crimes also occur in areas that are along major roads due to a large number of people who pass along those roads, those who have their businesses along the roads or even those who reside along those roads. It has been also portrayed that the city’s industrial park has been found to experience a lot of crimes unlike in other areas. This can be related to it having many people because the criminals will always focus on the areas that people so many people.

From the above report, it is evident that the pathways of crimes in this city are the areas within high activity note. This depicts that the areas with a lot of activities taking place are likely to experience crimes more often. The pathways for the crimes in this area are among the major roads, along with busy places like the shopping centers and in recreational areas. For instance, Shenandah park which is a public picnic site and playground is one of the highly targeted areas for crimes due to the many people who visit the area for recreation. A lot of theft happens at night especially when people go for grocery shopping.

Reference

Brantingham, P. L., & Brantingham, P. J. 1993. Nodes, paths, and edges: Considerations on the complexity of crime and the physical environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 13(1), 3-28.