Anti-crime tool combines research with policing

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department aims to soon have innovative new tools in its fight against crime on campus.

The Jerry Lee Center of Criminology has begun a series of new projects that map and model crimes and their locations in Philadelphia.

Once developed, these technological developments will allow the UPPD to use the analysis to more efficiently deploy ground patrols and forecast crime hot spots.

According to Director Lawrence Sherman, the emergence of crime research initiatives at Penn is a recent phenomenon.

"The relationship between crime mapping work at the center and the UPPD is just being born," Sherman said.

"The hope is that we can help advance the tools of analysis to be more precise and more effective in using the Penn Police to prevent crime."

A main innovation within the UPPD has been the implementation of a geographic information system that helps track overarching crime trends.

Geographic Information Systems "has become integral in the technology infrastructures of police departments," said Dennis Culhane, associate professor of social welfare policy. "It's not necessary for policing, but it helps [UPPD members] think about distribution of troops in the aggregate."

Culhane is co-director of the Cartographic Modeling Lab, a "GIS group that supports research of faculty and students on campus, with the special focus on Philadelphia."

Among its many projects, the lab recently completed CrimeBase, an online database of Philadelphia crime statistics. Its interface allows users to employ a number of tools, including chart and table depictions of crime trends and multiple search options.

While aggregate data has been a main topic of research in the lab, Culhane believes that crime-pattern analysis systems are an emerging focus of the center's work.

These tools, known specifically as ComStats, analyze individual crime offenses instead of gathering overall data.

Another research focus at the Criminology Center is juvenile co-offense, which centers around the networks of youth perpetrators in addition to the individuals themselves. This research attempts to link young criminals to their associates by helping police forecast their geographic and social trends.

By studying and determining the patterns of co-offender development -- and the "recruiters" who influence and engage inactive youths -- researchers believe they can prevent criminal activity at its source.

"Information on network structure is important, because it can help [researchers] identify recruiters who pose a more serious threat," said Reagan Daly, a doctoral student who analyzes co-offense crimes and recruitment trends.

These recruiters are "constantly bringing new members into co-offending networks and are responsible for initiating many of the crimes that occur, crimes that might not occur in their absence."

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