Criminal Intelligence and Crime Analysis 283
population commits most of the serious crime and most criminal acts occur
in relatively few geographic locations. To that end, if the police can deter-
mine who is likely to commit a crime and when and where it will occur, they
can take steps to arrest the perpetrator in the act or prevent it from happen-
ing at all. is is the general premise of crime analysis; Boba (2001) formally
identies four functions:
• Apprehend criminals
• Prevent crime
• Reduce disorder
• Evaluate organizational procedures
Research behind Crime Analysis
Criminologists have been able to conrm what the police have known for
years: crime tends to center around hot spots or areas that have a dispropor-
tionate amount of crimi