ABSTRACT
The earliest use of the term crime analysis can be found in the second edition of O.W. Wilson’s book Police Administration (1963). Wilson was the superintendent of the Chicago Police Department from 1960 to 1971, as well as serving as police chief in other cities.
Even though the term crime analysis might not have been used prior to Wilson’s use of it in 1963, it seems likely that the practice of crime analysis actually goes back to the nineteenth century, although some criminal justice historians might effectively argue that it dates back to the beginning of society. While that is debatable, and while it depends on how you define crime analysis, it seems more certain that August Vollmer, who has been called “the father of American policing,” seemed to be describing some of the early uses of crime analysis when he talked about pin mapping, the regular review of police reports, and the formation of patrol districts based on crime volume.
In 1829, Sir Robert Peel, in bringing about the London Metropolitan Police in London, England, developed a set of principles for good policing. One of these principles was “to recognize always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them” (Schneider, 2015, p. 334). In other words, Peel believed that it wasn’t arrests or use of force that made for good, effective policing. It was that the police would prevent crime and disorder in the first place, rather than deal with responding to and solving crimes.
Usually, crime analysis functions are assigned to one of four classifications:
Tactical crime analysis
Strategic crime analysis
Administrative crime analysis
Police operations analysis
Chapter 10 describes each of these four functions.
