Abstract:
A mail survey of 347 municipal police departments in New Jersey was conducted
to determine the number of departments currently doing computerized crime
mapping, as well as how long they had used the innovation and, if they
were not currently mapping, whether they had plans to start in the future.
The overall rate of adoption, as of the end of 2002, was 13.8 per cent.
Department size was strongly associated with mapping use—agencies
with 100 or more sworn full-time officers were six times more likely to
have adopted crime mapping than agencies with fewer than ten officers.
Despite this finding, there was no evidence of hierarchical diffusion.
Large departments had not typically adopted the innovation earlier than
had small departments. The article concludes with a discussion of the
barriers facing crime mapping adoption by small departments.
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