We
don't know if there has as yet been any empirical research done on how
interested media consumers are in online crime mapping — and how good the coverage is — but there is a body of
literature debating readers' interest in crime per se. It would
seem to be a pretty good bet, though, that if people are interested in
crime AND if more and more are going online via broadband, that
some dynamic crime maps would get some hits.
Remember
that crime mapping is not just about pushing digital push-pins on a
map, GoogleMap or otherwise. “Journey to Crime” maps or maps
showing where a car was stolen and when it was recovered can provide
interesting insights.
Here are some links recently posted to the CrimeMapping listserv that could be of value to journalists:
Journey-after-crime: How Far and to Which Direction DO They Go?
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/boston2004/papers/Lu.ppt
Linking Offender Residence Probability Surfaces to a Specific Incident Location
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/maps/dallas2001/Gore.doc
Journey to Crime Estimation
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/CRIMESTAT/files/CrimeStatChapter.10.pdf
Applications for Examining the Journey-to-Crime Using Incident-Based Offender Residence Probability Surfaces
http://pqx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/7/4/457
The Geography of Transit Crime:
http://www.uctc.net/papers/550.pdf
See, too: Paulsen, Derek J. “WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF HOMICIDE IN SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTING DANGEROUS PLACES.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 9(3) (2002) 113-127
