Data Visualization of Violent Crime Hotspots in Malaysia

Abstract

Crime is a critical issue that has gained significant attention in many countries including Malaysia. The Malaysian government has invested in a system known as the Geographical Information System (GIS) to map the crime hotspots in high prospect zones. However, the occurrences of violent crimes continue to increase at an alarming rate despite the implementation of the system. In order to combat crimes in a more effective manner in recent years, crime mapping has been proposed to identify crime hotspots in the country. This study applies crime mapping to identify crime hotspots in Malaysia. Data on crime for 14 states in Malaysia from 2007–2016 were obtained, with permission, from the Royal Malaysia Police or known as Police DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) in Bahasa Malaysia. Data visualization was carried out using Tableau to gain more insights on the patterns and behaviours from violent crime data. The results show that Selangor has the highest number of violent crimes, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Johor. Perlis has the lowest number of violent crimes. Gang robbery is the highest in all 14 states. Interestingly, violent crimes being the highest in Selangor which also has the highest youth population. There is also a strong significant positive correlation between number of violent crime and youth population.