Chapter 1230 - 1158: They Are Different
"Geographical profiling? Crime geography and environmental criminology? I won’t feel sleepy if you talk about this." Liu Jinghui suddenly became excited: "Crime analysis from the Chicago School interests me as well. By the way, I have worked on similar cases using theory for related practice."
Jiang Yuan talked while walking: "Oh, you’ve worked on similar cases?"
"Of course. In the past, without you, cases without leads could only be approached by drawing circles for visits and such. At that time, I was always making judgments based on crime pattern theory..."
"Is it useful?" Jiang Yuan wasn’t particularly interested in discussing pure theoretical topics but was indeed a bit curious.
"It is useful. For example, crime pattern theory suggests that the time-space interaction of crime factors makes crime most likely to occur in areas where the activity spaces of potential criminals and potential victims overlap. I once caught a serial rapist using this method by marking all the victims’ activity areas and then checking if the suspect had intersecting activity areas with them..."
Jiang Yuan interrupted Liu Jinghui’s endless talk: "Is it easy to do?"
Liu Jinghui was taken aback for a moment, then entered a reminiscing state. After a while, he said: "Once the area is determined, it’s all about screening and visits, eventually catching the criminal... Definitely not easy. Back when I was doing the screening, I didn’t have the support you provide now."
Crime geography and environmental criminology, among others, are theoretical studies based on geographical factors to study crime. Further developments include crime pattern theory, routine activity theory, rational choice theory, and crime space theory.
These theoretical things don’t really come in handy when faced with minor cases on a daily basis. Because minor cases can be left unsolved; if no leads are found, just let it go.
Most police officers only resort to using these theories, which are detached from intuition, when they encounter major cases that must be solved.