Spatial hotspot patterns of a home burglary in Penang

Abstract

This study is based on property crime cases in the Northeast of Penang using GIS application for crime prevention. Studies based on the spatial elements showed that GIS application was able to reduce the crime issues. The purpose of this study is to identify the hotspots of home burglary based on time incident in Penang using GIS spatial statistics. Based on the report of house burglary cases from 2013 until 2015. Getis Ord Gi* was used to identify the high-risk areas of home burglary cases based on z-scores and p-values. The analysis shows that the areas of the hot spot cases of home burglary are the same for night and day incidents. In 2013, the hot spot areas at night were 7 areas, and during the day only 1 incident was identified. Hot spot increases in 2014 to 9 areas for nighttime incidents while daytime events also increased to 10 areas. While 2015 showed that the number of hot spots that occurred at night reduced to 5 areas and daytime incidents also recorded the same number of hot spots during the night incidents. Hot spot areas also frequently identified in urban areas and high population density such as Jelutong, Dato Keramat, Tanjung Tokong dan Sungai Nibong. The result showed that hotspots of home burglary are more concentrated in residential areas with good road network accessibility. This study can assist the authorities such as the Royal Malaysia Police (RPM) in preventing and reducing the crime index by using GIS applications.