ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part presents the area of crime measurement and the practical aspect of crime prevention. It addresses spatial issues that are of particular importance to spatial crime analysis. Because most data used within environmental criminology is spatially referenced, there are a number of additional data concerns and choices that must be made within any analysis. The part discusses the topic of hotspots of crime. It explains the standard definition of a hotspot, some methodological issues surrounding the measurement of hotspots, and some of the common forms of measuring hotspots, primarily kernel density estimation because of its widespread use. The part explores the temporal dimension of criminal events, is concerned environmental criminology with asking where and when a criminal event occurred and provides geographic profiling. Geographic profiling is an application of environmental criminology theories that is used as an investigative tool, in particularly serial criminal events.
