Abstract
While the high rate of crime in South Africa has received much international attention, mainly focused on violent crime, the vast majority of offences reported to the South African Police Service concern property and other non-violent offences. The present study explores the relationship between one of the most frequently reported property crimes (thefts out of motor vehicles) and the environment in which they occur, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Utilising the framework of crime pattern theory, crime generators and attractors are visually examined in order to determine whether they can explain concentrations of crime. We argue that when used in conjunction with relevant social theory aimed at the examination of the determinants of crime and criminality, GIS can be a powerful practical tool in the presentation of crime data.
Highlights
Interested in the occurrence of the crime itself, as opposed to other criminological theories that are concerned with criminality, that is, how biological, developmental and/or social factors influence a criminal offender
The study seeks to answer the following questions: Are thefts out of motor vehicles concentrated in specific neighbourhoods? In other words, are there hot spots of this type of property crime? Secondly, what is the nature of the immediate environment surrounding thefts out of motor vehicles? Thirdly, is this type of property crime concentrated around the location of criminogenic environments exemplified by crime generators and crime attractors? can the environmental perspective provide practical and appropriate solutions to the problem of thefts out of motor vehicles? This last, and more theoretical, question is given most attention in the final section of the article
The present study found that place does matter, and that the visualisation of crime can be descriptively linked to the physical location of crime attractors and generators within the framework of crime pattern theory (CPT)
Summary
Interested in the occurrence of the crime itself, as opposed to other criminological theories that are concerned with criminality, that is, how biological, developmental and/or social factors influence a criminal offender. The advancement of the environmental perspective has been assisted by the recent development of widely accessible computerised mapping and spatial analysis techniques Most commonly, these mapping and spatial analytic techniques are carried out in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), which house, manage and represent spatial data in a way that can significantly improve the ability of researchers to look more closely at the spatial variations and geographic contexts of crime occurrence.[2] Perhaps the most intriguing – and powerful – property of GIS is that it can be used as. This has not been the case in South Africa where, until recently, spatial data on crime and place were not readily available to researchers This is changing, given the availability of more reliable census data and the improving access to crime data through the efforts of some of the country’s non-governmental organisations.
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