A content analysis of web-based crime mapping in the world's top 100 highest GDP cities

Abstract

The boom of internet technologies, particularly web-based geographic information system (GIS) technologies, is opening new opportunities for use of crime mapping to support crime prevention. The aim of this article is to review the adoption trend of web-based crime mapping in the world's top 100 highest GDP cities and access the current state of the art in the use of web-based crime mapping. We found that the functions provided in web-based crime mapping are less than in most traditional crime mapping software. We conclude that existing works of web-based crime mapping focus on supporting community policing rather than analytical functions such as pattern analysis and prediction. With the current descriptive study, we shed some light on the direction of web-based crime mapping studies. The findings in this article can be treated as a reference for developers, police officers and policymakers to develop, design and implement web-based crime mapping projects.