THE GEOGRAPHY OF CRIME
New Scheme of Work by Mr. Bilbie for 2007
Crime has been included on the agenda as part of the QCA's Scheme of Work. It is also featured in the GEOG DOT series of textbooks which we use in the department at my current school. It is one of those new topics to have found its way into Geography schemes in the last few years.
Why should Crime be studied by Geographers ?
Clearly the police map crimes and look for patterns of behaviour when tracking suspects.
A useful video / series to get hold of is a programme on 'Mapping Crime', which includes Chris Durbin, who also edited the 'Investigating Geography' series, which includes some crime in it. It's shown from time to time in the BBC Learning Zone. Keep an eye out for the listings - it's repeated from time to time and you should catch it while you can. It's well presented and split up into useful short sections.
For CRIME STATISTICS, go to the NATIONAL STATISTICS page. This allows you to put in any postcode and get a summary of useful statistics. I put in PE30 2QB: the postcode of my current school and discovered how it varied from the national average in various respects. The Ward is apparently classed as 'RURAL' which is interesting...
Try the site of the POLICE or the HOME OFFICE. Get in touch with the local police. They may be able to release certain crime statistics.
Some materials on crime are included on the GEOG.2 CD ROM. This includes an activity which is similar to Cluedo to use as a starter. Why not purchase it ? Could develop the CLUEDO idea perhaps as a starter with students, or design a Geographical version of the game.
Crime is an activity that exhibits patterns, and these patterns can be mapped.
Try CRIME INFO: developed by King's College London's Centre for Crime and Justice.
Another website useful for crime STATISTICS is here. Should give you the information you need for your crime starter.
How about considering aspects such as illegal downloading. This is apparently due to be added to some Citizenship schemes as it is seen as an area that young people are involved in.
Thanks to Rob Jones of King's School for sending me a few Crime resources, which he uses in conjunction with the OUP GEOG DOT series of textbooks. These offer a very useful range of teacher resource packs to accompany the textbooks.
A Crime Story Starter - graph to label and follow on activities
Criminal Behaviour Starter - word document - how serious are these crimes ?
Crime ODD ONE OUT
More to come ...
LESSON PLANNING / SCHEME OF WORK
1. Intro to Crime
Series of crimes written on flash cards.
Group issued with a crime each.
Have to arrange themselves in a line from the most serious to the least serious....
Kinaesthetic starter.
2. Crime
Why is it an environmental issue ?
Link to the home area. Survey of court report in local papers.
Improving a street resource from Geog.2
3. Mapping Crime
Uses 'Mapping Crime' extract from Chris Durbin series. Look at the crimes which may have occurred locally.
Extracts look at how crime can be linked to particular locations.
4. Example from local area / London - mapping
Also exercise in Geog.2 which looks at identifying a suspect based on mapping their movements, and identifying houses which could be prone to crime.
Look at how crime can be designed out - and how some housing estates and shopping precincts almost 'encourage' crime by their design.
5. Preventing crime through design
Designing out crime: target hardening
Designing a crime proof school / house / vehicle
Why not design your house in SKETCH UP.
6. Crime on the Web
CHICAGO CRIME is a rather groovy site which has a database of crimes. They can be plotted on a GoogleMap which has colour coded pins showing the location of crimes in Chicago.
A simpler version is available for the whole of West Yorkshire. It's the BEAT CRIME website which is produced by, and run by the West Yorkshire Police Authority.
7. Check out the OS GIS ZONE which has an excellent resource. This includes a downloadable SWF version with associated worksheets which allows you to explore crime and prioritise police resources.
http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/giszone/gateway.cfm
Other modules are also available on other topics. I have used this successfully.
8. CRIME ENQUIRY
Produced by Sarah Watts and Fred Martin, colleagues on the (WORD DOCUMENT to download) - very useful document...
SCHEMES OF WORK
Check out TONY CASSIDY's mini-scheme of work - this is now available on the new RADICAL GEOGRAPHY site. Need to head over to the RESOURCES section.
Also 'Mountainman' from SLN FORUM has posted his CRIME SCHEME OF WORK, which was produced in association with a number of others. Available to download (Word document)
Thanks to Mr. Bilbie for his efforts on this, with additional material for lower ability groups, and alternative strategies and resources.
Thanks to SLN Forum members for many of the resources, which have been also linked to elsewhere on this page. Thanks also to Roger Jeans.
http://mapzone.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/mapzone/giszone/english/gismissions/page6.htm
Also some good resources available via the Media - there are various anti-crime campaigns going on at the moment.
Thanks to Adam for some movies on GEOGRAPHY AT THE MOVIES which are used as starters, Tasha Goddard & Hayley Markham for some information, Tony Cassidy for a few bits, the Amy Crime Journey powerpoint
KES Crime in the Community (WORD Document - 51Kb)
Crime Peer and Self Assessment Sheet (WORD Document - 42Kb)
Patterns of Crime Nationwide (Excel Worksheet - 16Kb)
Which are Crimes Starter (WORD Document - 113 Kb) - thanks to Mr. Bilbie for producing this
Need to collect some data using the questionnaire.
Need to collate the data that was collected.
King's Lynn Ward Map
BOOKLET to look at deprivation and the link with Crime, and the perceptions of crime that people in King's Lynn have....