A widely used way of representing spatial distributions of crime events is geographic boundary
thematic mapping or choropleth mapping ( Home Offi ce, 2001 ). Boundary areas that are
used for this type of thematic mapping are usually arbitrarily defi ned for administrative or
Owing to the varying size and shape of most geographical boundaries, thematic shading
can beguile the map reader in identifying the existence of the highest crime concentrations
( Eck et al. , 2005 ). Hence this technique can fail to reveal patterns across and within the
geographical division of boundary areas ( Chainey and Ratcliffe, 2005 ). Also, as with
all mapping reliant on defi ned geographical boundaries, the problem of the Modifi able
Areal Unit Problem (MAUP; Openshaw, 1984 ) produces further complications. This is
Predicting Spatial Patterns of Crime
8
where changes in the boundaries themselves can directly affect the patterns shown on
the map.