Look Before You Analyze: Visualizing Data in Criminal Justice

Maltz, Michael D.

doi:10.1007/978-0-387-77650-7_3

Cited by 21 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…9. For each five-year period, Table 3 includes three measures of central tendency (the geometric mean, the mean and the median), one measure of dispersion (the standard deviation), the 1960-2010. Country 1960-4 1965-9 1970-4 1975-9 1980-4 1985-9 1990-4 1995-9 2000-4 2005 Austria Figure 9.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The persistence of lifestyles: Rates and correlates of homicide in Western Europe from 1960 to 2010

Aebi

Linde

2014

European Journal of Criminology

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This article analyses rates and correlates of homicide in 15 West European countries from 1960 to 2010. The results show that the levels of homicide in 2010 and the trends in homicide from 1960 to 2010 are not related to any of the traditional demographic and socioeconomic predictors of crime. Homicide victimization rates show an increase from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s, and a decrease since then. Victims of both genders and all group ages follow the same trend, except in the case of infanticide, which decreased during the whole period. These results do not support the hypothesis of a homicide trend driven by the evolution of victimization of young men in public space. The authors propose an explanation based on a lifestyle approach.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…GDP at current market prices per head of population in15 West European countries, 1960-2010 (1,000 Euro per capita).…”

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confidence: 99%

The persistence of lifestyles: Rates and correlates of homicide in Western Europe from 1960 to 2010

Aebi

Linde

2014

European Journal of Criminology

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“…The decision to keep it simple is guided by the writings of Breiman (2001), Freedman (1991), Goertzel (2004) and Maltz (2010) who all give good reasons for not employing the broad class of regression analyses in the first place. In fact, our analyses profit from the simplicity of our long-term time series (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Homicide (vital statistics, per 100,000 population).Denmark (1951Denmark ( -2010,Finland (1950-2010), Norway (1951-2010 andSweden (1950Sweden ( -2010.Source: von Hofer et al, 2012: 33-34; updated. …”

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The development of crime in light of Finnish and Swedish criminal justice statistics, circa 1750–2010

Hofer

Lappi‐Seppälä²

2013

European Journal of Criminology

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This paper analyses four historical time series on homicide, assault, robbery and theft from Finnish and Swedish vital and conviction (judicial) statistics. It is suggested that long-term criminal justice statistics -at least in Finland and Sweden -are highly usable and that they add relevant basic knowledge to important current criminological and crime policy issues. It is concluded that law reforms are greatly influential in terms of changes in the sanctioning system (strong evidence of policy impact); but law reforms do not contribute to lasting changes in the development of crime as measured by conviction statistics (no substantiated evidence of crime impact). In the long run, crime seems to persistently evade the manifold legislative efforts to 'combat' it.

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“…Its descriptive contribution, in concert with other approaches, provides a more complete picture of offense specialization and versatility on an individual level. Maltz (2010) strongly promotes the visualization of data as a first step in statistical analysis. Rather than seeing this as ''data snooping,'' he argues that it is actually good practice to begin any analysis by looking for potential patterns or relationships in the data.…”

Section: A Dynamic View Of Criminal Careersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Life History Plots to Visualize Criminal Careers

Harris

2012

Criminal Justice Review

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Developmental criminology suggests that the elements of one's criminal career (such as specialization or frequency) are best captured through an understanding of their dynamic properties. To that end, this article introduces the Life History Plot: a graphic approach to understanding the important events that take place in an individual's criminal and personal history. Each plot provides a visualization of the individual's criminal history as well as marriage, children, employment, military service, time in custody, foster care, psychiatric history, and serious accidents. Life History Plots were created for a selection of chronic sexual offenders drawn from the Massachusetts Treatment Center Database. This article details the methods used to create the plots and encourages further exploration of data visualization techniques in criminology. Life History Plots make an important contribution to the field by allowing multiple aspects of an individual's life to be instantly observed in a single graphic. This is a valuable tool that provides a visual summary of an individual's life. Its utility for both research and clinical work is discussed.The criminal career paradigm provides a framework in which to explore patterns of offending over time including onset, frequency, escalation, specialization, and desistance (Piquero, Farrington, & Blumstein, 2007). An appreciation of these components takes us beyond the view of crime as a static phenomenon and perhaps beyond the alleged distinction between criminals and noncriminals. Instead, it acknowledges that engaging in criminal behavior is a fluid process that ebbs and flows over time.Many of the available approaches that measure the individual elements of the criminal career (e.g., including frequency, specialization, or versatility) tend to operate as if they are static and thus do not account for changes over time. Consistent with this perspective, some researchers have argued that these components might be best understood through a more comprehensive examination of the local life circumstances that an individual experiences across their life course (

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Look Before You Analyze: Visualizing Data in Criminal Justice

Cited by 21 publications

References 20 publications

The persistence of lifestyles: Rates and correlates of homicide in Western Europe from 1960 to 2010

The persistence of lifestyles: Rates and correlates of homicide in Western Europe from 1960 to 2010

The development of crime in light of Finnish and Swedish criminal justice statistics, circa 1750–2010

Using Life History Plots to Visualize Criminal Careers

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