h). BDC Seminar Series | 27th February 2019

Title:

“The role of innovative data collection methods in advancing criminological understanding”

Abstract:

Making use of openly available online, often crowdsourced data allow for new insights into people’s experiences and subjective perceptions in relation to crime, victimisation, and other related constructs. For example, people reporting environmental antisocial behaviour using civic technology platforms can give insight into what people consider ‘signal disorders’ in their environment, and other platforms, such assafecity, which allow victims of crime to share their experiences anonymously, removing many barriers that prevent official reporting of sensitive crimes. Such data can complement traditional sources and offer another angle to identify spatial and temporal correlates of crimes and fear of crime. Further, new data collection technologies such as mobile applications, and linking these with physiological sensing measures also allow for the collection of spatially and temporally explicit data about people’s subjective perceptions of places as they go about their everyday routine activities. This presentation will give examples of ways in which such data and methods can further criminological understanding, and help researchers and practitioners understand what it is about certain environments that promote such experiences and perceptions of crime.

Author:

Dr. Reka Solymosi is a lecturer in quantitative methods focused on making use of new forms of data to gain insight into people’s behaviour and subjective experiences, particularly focusing on crime, transport, and spatial research. She is also interested in promoting data literacy.