Trulia Trends has posted interactive graphs that let you look at crime by time of day in various cities in the U.S. Using data from SpotCrime (which largely relies on police reports to track crime), they plotted the commission of different types of crime. If you scroll over a city you can get details of the types of crime occurring at a specific time of day:
You can also choose types of crime, then get information on what percent of all crimes in each city fall into that category as well as its distribution throughout the day:
The graphs are useful for visually showing that, though violent crimes (shootings, assaults, robberies) understandably get more attention, the vast majority of crime is property crime.
I haven’t had time to go through and look for clear patterns or differences between cities or types of crime. Notice anything interesting?
Comments 14
Ari — August 24, 2012
The Indianapolis one is strange. I wonder if the pattern has to do with the way crime is reported.
StrngeFruit — August 24, 2012
At least from your screen shot, crime in Indianapolis spikes every hour one the hour. What's with that?
i guess maybe the reports are only filed periodically and in batches
Crime By Time of Day #Interesting « Welcome to the Doctor's Office — August 24, 2012
[...] Crime By Time of Day #Interesting Posted by thedrhiphop ⋅ 08/24/2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment Filed Under Criminal Justice System by Gwen Sharp from SocImages [...]
hypatia arez — August 24, 2012
From an outsider perspective it's really interesting to see cities that are perceived to be really big for violent crime like Las Vegas and Oakland actually have a far lower percentage of violent crimes than cities like Charlotte, Milwaukee and San Francisco.
Julie — August 24, 2012
No Baltimore? :(
olsonam — August 24, 2012
Yeah, there's some interesting trends in how police gather and report data in some cities. I think Charlotte was interesting - basically none between 7am-8am - when the officers are checking in for morning, and then another drop at 3pm-4pm. I guess that's break time?
Portland, Oregon is the closest city to me. It seems like nothing but burglaries are reported at night. It seems unrealistic that all other crime stops at night. I wonder if there isn't a police force at night.
Song — August 24, 2012
It strikes me that the wee hours of the morning are not as dangerous as we like to think -- being out and about at 3 or 4 in the morning seems a lot safer than 7 or 8 pm.
Ruth — August 25, 2012
Interestingly, San Francisco crime is 40-70% assaults. Is the property crime just not reported there, or is there really a lot of assault in San Francisco?
Nisi Shawl — August 26, 2012
No figures at all for rape or sexual assault. So these aren't crimes? Does "Shootings" stand in for murder? I don't understand the selection on offer here.
skaizun — March 3, 2023
Some people might look at the map for their (or a friend's) area on that website, see the vast number of "crimes" committed, and think, "Holy cow! That's a lot of crime for one day!" Nope. It's a collection of police reports over months, not hours! So, don't panic!