The geography of crime

Learning Intention

To understand how geographical

location may affect the chances

of crimes being committed

In pairs choose two contrasting photos from the sheet and discuss the following questions

• How busy is this area?• Why are people there?• How might the time of day affect this place?• Is the area rural (open countryside) or urban

(built up)?• How deprived (rundown, poor) is this area? • How does this place make you feel?

How is crime linked to location?

Examples of crimes

A crime is any action that breaks the law

Draw up your own mind map (spider diagram) to show as many different types of crime you can

think of in less than 10 minutes

Examples of crimes

murder

fraud

forgery

Car theft

terrorism

Traffic offence

burglary

vandalism

Domestic violence

Handling stolen goods Armed

robbery

Environmental crime

Common assault

mugging

• Cut out the images from the black and white sheet and place them in a column down the left hand side of the page – in any order

• Rank the images in the following ways by numbering them – use a colour key

1. Most crime to least crime2. Richest to poorest3. Urban to rural

Remember –

Urban means built up and rural refers to open countryside

• Describe the location in one sentence• Suggest one crime that would occur here and say why

•Describe the location in one sentence•Suggest one crime that would occur here and say why

•Describe the location in one sentence•Suggest one crime that would occur in here and say why

Now do the same for two more of the photographs you have down the

left hand side of your page

So how is crime linked to location?

Imagine you are a criminal

What kinds of places would you target?

To do this choose 2 to 4 crimes and describe the perfect location!

Explain why these locations are so ‘good’- do this in your exercise book

Homework

Bring in a newspaper article or two about crime in your area – scan Yellow Advertiser, the local newspaper or the Internet for this

Looking for ‘crime hotspots’

• A crime hotspot is a place where a crime is a regular occurrence – it may be a particular type of crime or in some cases a range of different crimes

• If the weather is OK next lesson we will go on a walk around our local area and see how many crime hotspots we can find

• We’ll also check out the types of crime likely in the different areas we visit and try to see if there is something about the location (it’s geography) that has made it a crime hotspot

• This may help the police understand how to tackle the crime

• BE PREPARED – COME WITH COAT & UMBRELLA!