Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2 WikiCrimes, illustrating the pinmap view and generated hotspots for the host city of
Fortaleza, NE Brazil (from Furtado et al.
2010
). 2010 Google, 2010 Map Link
A further impetus for WikiCrimes is the paucity of crime information
emanating from law enforcement agencies in Brazil and various other countries,
owing to lack of disclosure. Public discussions have also highlighted the damaging
phenomenon of under-reporting of crime, due to a lack of trust in those agencies
(Kahn
2007
) and faith that any positive result would come from filing a crime
report. This lack of information dissemination means that certain areas of public
policy
and
police
planning
are
hampered
due
to
inadequate
intelligence.
WikiCrimes seeks to collaboratively add to that intelligence.
Since WikiCrimes was initiated in January 2008, there has been an initiative on
the ground (e.g. via lectures and workshops) promoting the resource in the host
city of Fortaleza (Ceará state, NE Brazil). This has led to valuable results,
augmenting crime disclosure in that city (over half the crimes have been reported
there) (Furtado at al.
2010
). Sections
3
and
4
will describe the data and the results
of geovisual analytics at the country (by state) and local (by degree grid cell) scale.
