Optimization of criminal hotspots based on underlying crime controlling factors using geospatial discriminative pattern

Abstract

Criminal activities are unevenly distributed over space. The concept of hotspots is widely used to analyze the spatial characters of crimes. But existing methods usually identify hotspots based on an arbitrary user-defined threshold with respect to the number of a target crime without considering underlying controlling factors. In this study we introduce a new data mining model - Hotspots Optimization Tool (HOT) - to identify and optimize crime hotspots. The key component of HOT, Geospatial Discriminative Patterns (GDPatterns), which capture the difference between two classes in spatial dataset, is used in crime hotspot analysis. Using a real world dataset of a northeastern city in the United States, we demonstrate that the HOT model is a useful tool in optimizing crime hotspots,and it is also capable of visualizing criminal controlling factors which will help domain scientists further understanding the underlying reasons of criminal activities. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.