Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
b Fig. 6 The Brazilian states mapped by crime setting (as % for state): a Thoroughfare; b Place of
residence; c Vehicle; d Commercial location; e Bank; f Pharmacy; g Public transport station.
h Public square; i Lottery; j Shop; k Petrol station; l School; m Other
one of the colour palettes provided by eXplorer, slightly modified to highlight
areas with no magnitude in the attribute being mapped.
Where multiple maps are displayed together for comparison, the benefits of best-
practice ways of defining class intervals (e.g. optimal breaks or natural breaks) are
lessened as there would be no consistent intervals across the maps (MacEachren
1994
). Therefore a geometric progression fixed intervals classification is applied
here to all maps, a variation on the use of equal intervals for multiple map com-
parison recommended (with qualifiers) by MacEachren (
1994
). The chosen clas-
sification scheme is a closer approximate fit with the data while the consistent class
intervals enable easy comparison, within a group of attributes, but also across
groups if needed (e.g. for a quick check of high proportion of some crime type
spatially correlating with a high proportion of a specific setting or reason).
The intervals were shifted from the common geometric progression of 1-2-4-
8… to enable a better fit with the percentage scale used for all attributes. There-
fore, in the six-class representation used here, the intervals are 0 % (no incidence
of that attribute - white), 0.01-6.24 % (blue), 6.25-12.49 % (light blue),
12.5-24.99 % (yellow), 25-49.99 % (orange) and 50-100 % (red). The order in
which the attribute map figures are displayed in Figs.
4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9
,
10
,
11
is
according to mean percentage value in descending order.
3.1.3 Choropleth Maps by State
Figure
4
maps each of the 5 identified types of crime by state. In general, only the
robbery and violence crime types occurred in any state in a proportion of greater than
50 %; in each case this occurred in only a few states. The five types were found in
most states, with only some states having attempted robbery and theft not recorded.
Figure
5
maps each of the 8 identified crime victim types by state. Overall, only
crimes on the property, person and murder crime victim types occurred with a
proportion of more than 50 %, and even then only in a few states. These 3 crime
victim types, along with attempted murder, had majority coverage. However, the
other 4 crime victim types had patchy coverage, occurring in roughly a third to a
half of the states.
Figure
6
maps each of the 13 identified settings in which crime incidents occur by
state. In general, only three of the listed crime settings occur in any state in a
proportion of greater than 25 %: Thoroughfare (most states), place of residence and
vehicle (Ceará only). Also, in some states, a large proportion of crimes occurred in
unspecified settings (Fig.
6
m). Commercial locations and banks, in addition to the
top three specified crime settings, had majority coverage. The remaining seven
specified settings had approximately a third to a half of the states covered.
