ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors utilize crime maps to try to illustrate, very briefly, their point by moving downward through what geographers call a “cone of resolution”. Florida is interesting because it has had a serious problem with high rates of all seven index crimes, at least since the FBI began collecting national crime reports. Data are 1971 Uniform Crime Reports figures as published by the FBI. The mapping of crime has been an important tool in the criminologist’s kit for a century and a half. Crime mapping remains an important method of organizing and using data. The purpose of crime mapping has rarely been some sort of tactical analysis for law enforcement, but rather has usually been the broader aim of comparative social pattern analysis in search of the “causes” of crime. Regional crime patterns suggest a closer look at regional demography and migration patterns and force the researcher toward time-series analysis.
