Perception of people versus actual statistical data : a spatial-temporal study of thefts from vehicles at St. Julian's

Abstract

The identification of the three most important geographic factors that are; Space, Place and Time, of a particular type of crime occurrence has been becoming of great help to bring out an association between the social aspects and the surrounding environment of that place where that particular crime occurred. Therefore the "where" concept rather than the "who" concept is being given much more importance to analyse a crime. A quotation to sustain this argument is "Why aren't we thinking more about wheredunit, rather than just whodunit?" by Lawrence W. Sherman. (Sherman L.W., 1995, pg. 37). In effect, Geography of Crime is the study which brings out the latter concept. Adding the perception of the community and their opinion of where a particular type of crime is likely to happen and at what time, with the actual statistics recorded, is also important to discuss. Thus by this, curios results are likely to come out of the discussion because what people think might not or might be reflected in the actual statistics. Taking St. Julian's as a place under study, an investigation of the spatial and temporal elements related to thefts from vehicles; according to the perception of people and according to the actual statistical data, has been dealt with. These two aspects have been integrated and analysed to see the difference or similarities in the results given from both the perception of people and from the actual statistics. This concept will be the main theme of the study.