Title: Combining the richness of GIS techniques with visualisation tools to better understand the spatial distribution of data - a case study of Chicago City crime analysis

Authors: Omar Ibrahim Bani-Taha; M. Omair Shafiq

Addresses: School of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Design, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada ' School of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Design, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada

Abstract: This study aims to: 1) to explore the benefits of adding a spatial GIS layer of analysis to other existing visualisation techniques; 2) to identify and evaluate the patterns in selected crime data by analysing Chicago's open dataset; 3) provide a better understanding of patterns and prediction of crime trends within the selected geographical location. We conclude that Chicago seems to be on course to have both the lowest violent crime rate since 1972, and the lowest murder frequency since 1967. Chicago has witnessed a vigorous drop in most crimes types over the last few years in compares to the previous crime index data. Also, Chicago crime naturally upsurges during summer months and declines during winter months. Our study results align with previous several decades of studies and analysis of Chicago crimes, in which the same communities of highest crime rates still experience the mainstream of crime.

Keywords: spatial distribution; geographic information system; GIS; crime analysis; visualisation tools; GIS techniques; data visualisation; crime mapping.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBDI.2020.106177

International Journal of Big Data Intelligence, 2020 Vol.7 No.1, pp.29 - 46

Received: 16 Nov 2018
Accepted: 19 May 2019
Published online: 01 Apr 2020 *