CRIME STATISTICS AND POLICYMAKERS

Crime Statistics and Policymakers

Crime Statistics and Policymakers

Introduction

The study aims to examine the use of crime statistics in policy management to reduce violence. The changing paradigm advocated in relation to public safety, which has a strong emphasis on integration with the community, the adoption of information technologies and the use of evaluation mechanisms. All these elements contribute to an action aimed at the adoption of preventive practices of crime control and demand, in turn, a change in organizational standards prevailing in police institutions.

Discussion

This study aims to promote a reflection on the use of crime statistics by the public safety professionals to plan their actions. Moreover, it also explores the issues concerning the use of this source of information within police institutions and the factors that favor and hinder its use. This analysis was structured considering the characteristics of the contemporary model of policing that advocates the use of statistics as a key element in the construction of crime analysis.

In this sense, it is recognized that this is a cross-cutting issue that goes beyond the discussion of the field of public safety and relates to issues concerning the development of information systems and the context of its use, as well as in relation to the organizational culture police institutions. However, the focus of this study is the discussion about the cultural and institutional aspects necessary to incorporate the use of criminal statistics in planning the raid (Lynch and Addington, 2006). That is, the work highlights the importance of these aspects in a model of information management in which the use of crime statistics is a central element. Thus, the study does not address the method of analysis strictly criminal. The perspective adopted by the work meets the interdisciplinary nature characteristic of information science. It is worth noting, though, that contemporary ...