Address Matching Bias:
Ignorance is not Bliss

 

July 1-4th, 2004
Royal New Zealand Police College

Authors: Gisela Bichler, Stefanie Balchak, and Jill Christie

Abstract: Efforts to diagnose the nature and characteristics of high crime areas lead many to explore the utility of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to study crime. However, despite the critical importance of using accurate data when identifying geographic patterns and studying hotspots, few have explored the data quality issues inherent to plotting crime events in detail. While software manufacturers provide some information about the address matching process, critical details are left out or are buried in technical, and sometimes proprietary, jargon. This paper explores these neglected details and demonstrates how the assumptions built into popular GIS software introduce bias. This close inspection of address matching is necessary as much information is lost during the interdisciplinary exchange of analytic techniques. Implications for crime analysis are discussed.

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Presentation

Center for Criminal Justice Research,
Department of Criminal Justice, California State University, San Bernardino

College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407
PH: 909.537.5548 FAX: 909.537.7025 WEB: http://ccjr.csusb.edu