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32 Policing Soc'y: Int'l J. Res. Pol'y 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/pgsty32 and id is 1 raw text is: POLICING AND SOCIETY 2022, VOL. 32, NO. 1, 1-17 https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2021.1874950 Routledge Taylor & Francis Group Dots versus density: the impact of crime mapping techniques on perception of safety, police performance and neighbourhood quality Kathryn Wuschke , Kris Henning and Gregory Stewart Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Portland State University, Portland, OR USA ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing advised law Received 4 March 2020 enforcement agencies to '[elstablish a culture of transparency and Accepted 8 January 2021 accountability in order to build public trust and legitimacy' (2015, p. 12). Such transparency and accountability may be promoted through KEYWORDS increased public access to crime data and measures of police activity. prcepons fearpubime; The inherently geographic nature of crime has made online maps one law enforcement of the more popular strategies for disseminating this information to the public. As more agencies deliver crime maps on their own, or hosted websites, it becomes important for social scientists to evaluate how these communications affect public perceptions. Crime mapping is a complex process requiring many decisions. This includes choices about the type of crime to include or exclude, the type of map used, and numerous design features for the map itself. The field of critical cartography argues that all of these decisions have the potential to shape perceptions about a given geographic location, the people living there, and, in the present context, the people charged with maintaining public safety in the area. This study investigates whether different types of maps (i.e. dot vs. density) affect individual perceptions of safety, police performance and neighbourhood quality. Results indicate that the type of crime map viewed does alter perceptions, illustrating a need for careful and consistent decision-making when preparing crime maps for public access. Introduction In recent decades, technological advancements have made it easier to collect large quantities of high-resolution geographic data. Policing agencies, among others, have benefitted from this heigh- tened data availability. This access to spatial data has bolstered the use of crime mapping within poli- cing agencies, both as an analytical tool, and as a method to distribute timely information to the communities they serve (Ratcliffe 2002, Wartell and McEwen 2001). A considerable amount of aca- demic research has explored the value of maps as policing tools (Eck et al. 2005). Considerably less attention has focused on crime maps as risk communication tools used to provide the public with information about crime in their community (Chainey and Tompson 2012, Quinton 2011). Within this area of research, there is a further shortage in studies exploring how design features of crime maps impact public perceptions (Groff et al. 2005). This study measures how the type of map used in public communications affects public percep- tions about the amount of crime in a given location, the people living there, and the police serving CONTACT Kathryn Wuschke wuschke@pdx.edu 0 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group