Prelude

0.1 Introduction

This workbook contains the lab materials for our Crime Mapping module in Department of Criminology at the University of Manchester. This module is an optional unit open to 3rd year undergraduate and postgraduate students.

It makes use of R, as it is a free, open source tool, that has tremendous community support, and great versatility in mapping applications. You can find more details about the advantages of R for geospatial work here

Crime Mapping introduces students to the concepts of spatial data analysis. The aim is to familiarise students with basic concepts of GIS, and get acquainted with spatial statistics to be able to talk about data about crime, policing, and criminal justice topics situated in the places they occur. Details can be found in the Syllabus.

0.2 Disclaimer

Please beware that:

  • In making these notes, while we briefly cover some concepts, students are expected to do the weekly reading, and attend the weekly lectures, as well as participate in lab disucssions to receive a complete course experience. These notes are not intended to be a stand-alone reference or textbook, rather a set of exercises to gain hands-on practice with the concepts introduced during the course.
  • These pages are the content of the university course mentioned above. They are meant to (very gently) introduce students to the concept of spatial data analysis, and cover descriptive statsitics and the key concepts required to build an understanding of quantitative data analysis in crime research.
  • The handouts below use, among other data sets, dara from the UK data service such as the Crime Survey for England and Wales that is available under a Open Government Licence. This dataset is designed to be a learning resource and should not be used for research purposes or the production of summary statistics.