Geographic Profiling & Mapping Flashcards
7 cards from real CCP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Geographic Profiling & Mapping flashcards as text
In geographic profiling, 'anchor points' most commonly include all of the following EXCEPT:
Answer: Offender's first-ever crime location
Anchor points are stable nodes in an offender's activity space — home, work, and leisure venues — not simply crime locations, which may or may not be anchors.
Routine Activity Theory, as applied to geographic profiling, requires the convergence of:
Answer: A motivated offender, a suitable target, and the absence of a capable guardian
Cohen and Felson's Routine Activity Theory requires three elements converging in time and space: a motivated offender, suitable target, and absence of a capable guardian.
Which GIS operation would be most appropriate for identifying the overlap between high-crime areas and locations of known parolees' residences?
Answer: Spatial join / overlay analysis
Spatial join or overlay analysis combines two geographic datasets to identify intersecting or overlapping features, such as crime hot spots and parolee locations.
The 'least effort principle' in geographic criminology suggests that offenders:
Answer: Tend to commit crimes at the closest suitable opportunity to minimize travel
The least effort principle holds that offenders, like most people, tend to minimize travel and effort when selecting targets, favoring nearby opportunities.
When a geographic profiler identifies a 'hunting ground,' this refers to:
Answer: The area where an offender selects and stalks potential victims
A hunting ground is the geographic area where an offender searches for and selects victims prior to an offense.
Standard deviational ellipses in crime mapping are used to:
Answer: Describe the directional distribution and spatial spread of crime events
Standard deviational ellipses capture the directional orientation and geographic dispersion of a crime pattern, showing both spread and directional trend.
In a geographic profile, the 'jeopardy surface' is best described as:
Answer: A probability map highlighting geographic zones most likely containing the offender's base
The jeopardy surface is a probability map generated by geographic profiling software that highlights geographic zones where the offender's anchor point most likely resides.