Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Applying Geovisual Analytics to
Volunteered Crime Data
Antoni Moore, Marcos de Oliveira, Carlos Caminha, Vasco Furtado,
Victor Basso and Leonardo Ayres
Abstract There is a great deal of volunteered data that is ripe for exploration and
discovery. As an example, the Brazilian WikiCrimes web resource is rich with point
data containing attributes such as type of crime, crime setting and reason for crime
that have great potential for visual mining through geovisual analytics tools. One
such tool is eXplorer, a freely-available web-based application. This chapter details
the initial application of eXplorer to WikiCrimes data, mapped by both Brazilian
state and degree grid cell. In line with one of the objectives of WikiCrimes and
serving as a manifesto for similar online applications, it is anticipated that enhanced
crime transparency and publicity will emerge more easily from information mined
through geovisual analytics than the straightforward pin map display of crimes
depicting a point pattern. Furthermore, as a Web 2.0 tool in the public domain, the
exploration aspects should become a focus for more active public participation
through additional cooperation. Finally, eXplorer embodies a form of spatial
