Criminals Profile Their Targets

A variety of mathematical models have been developed to help law enforcement find lawless hotspots that can develop once a crime has happened.
This is excellent research, and it seems to me that police and other agencies could benefit from using the data.

clipped from www.nsf.gov View video Researchers teamed up with the LAPD to model the math behind spikes in crime. Credit and Larger Version View a video showing how math modeling is used to understand crime spikes. What causes a crime wave and what measures should law enforcement use to reduce the spread of criminal offense? Researchers at UCLA and the University of California, Irvine, who are funded by the Human and Social Dynamics program at the National Science Foundation, say they may have an answer. Bertozzi's conclusions come from research involving a system of mathematical equations that uses empirical evidence for how repeat offenders move and mix in society, as well as how they choose their targets. She and her colleagues report their findings this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The models "provide a useful framework in which to investigate the formation of crime patterns and the impact of alternative policing strategies on crime hotspot stability,"