Combating crime on campus may mean following the map.
The Division of Public Safety, in collaboration with the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, is working on an ongoing research study aimed at examining the arrest records of people who have committed crimes on campus.
The crime-mapping initiative -- which the division began last summer -- attempts to determine factors that bring individuals to run afoul of the law at Penn.
Criminology professor Lawrence Sherman said that although the project originally involved looking at juveniles and adults who commit crimes while on probation, the current data show that there is no direct correlation between the two.
Instead, criminals tend to have prior arrest records that didn't result in convictions due to strains on the existing court system.
The project has found that the majority of campus criminals tend to reside in the northwest section of West Philadelphia above the Powelton community as well as the southwest area below Chester Avenue, with criminals from other sections of the city accounting for a minor portion of campus crime.
According to Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker, criminals usually travel by bicycle or on foot.
"They're creatures of habit," Walker said as to why criminals tend to commit crimes in a single area. "They know all the cracks and crevices."
Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush said that the program serves to supplement existing measures by helping Penn Police identify repeat offenders. The study looks at the records of criminals over the last five years.
"Crime is motive plus opportunity," Rush said, but the public's awareness of what entices someone to commit a crime in the first place may be part of the equation as well.
Being safe "can mean not walking around at 3 to 4 a.m.," Rush said.
But the initiative doesn't stop with tracking those who have made crime a full-time career.
Rush said she has plans for working with social-service agencies and city programs that may offer career criminals a chance to break the cycle.
"We want to challenge where they do it, not just to push it out of our area," she said.
