Big Data and Crime Statistics
Sharon L. Lohr · 2019
This chapter explores the potential of “big data,” the massive data collections that accompany the internet age, to investigate aspects of crime that are less easily studied from other sources. Police departments too use big data to allocate resources, guide crime-deterrence programs, and inform police responses to crime complaints. Statistics from big data need to be evaluated using the same statistical principles as for other statistics. Many people first learn they were victims of fraud when notified by their credit card companies. Credit card companies use algorithms to detect possibly fraudulent transactions among the huge number of transactions processed every day. Massive amounts of data are produced as a byproduct of online activities. These include social media data, internet search patterns, comments on websites, cell phone records, and citizen requests for government services. Data from social media and internet search patterns are volunteered, and posts and searches can be dominated by a few active persons or organizations.