Maltese building blocks for geographical and crime science

Abstract

The study of urban ecology cannot be separated from geographical space; however the limitation of access to spatio-temporal information is a reality. Creating a crime information system for the Maltese Islands has entailed bridging the gap between analogue social information and spatial planning information which rarely talk. This paper covers the process employed to initiate an understanding of the legislative and operational tools available to crime and security geographers through to the preparation for the launching of country-wide baseline datasets for effective future socio-technic analysis. The decade long process to implement a major project using ERDF funds is at the final stages prior to the initiation of cross-thematic studies that span the physical and social domains. Both environmental and green criminology is now set to take off employing one of the most comprehensive GI systems spanning urban and rural offences (person and property-oriented), census data together with the natural, social and physical environments. The study reveals issues on access to data, mitigating processes undertaken and the forward planning initiatives to ensure free dissemination of environmental data to the academic and general public. Initial studies based on the analysis of crimemaps, poverty and crimes related to the environment show correlation between the different social and geographical spaces.