Problems of Forensic Sciences 2018 Vol. 113 (CXIII) 51-66
BUFFER ZONE AND CIRCLE THEORY ON THE EXAMPLE OF BURGLARIES AND ROBBERIES
Michał GÓRSKI
College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Streszczenie
In the current study, Canter and Larkin’s (1993) circle theory was subjected to an empirical test on a Polish sample of burglaries and robberies. Although in the case of burglaries the percentage of marauders was consistent with the results of foreign research, in the case of robberies, this percentage was surprisingly low. The dependence of the maximum distance travelled on the maximum distance between crimes allowed to draw conclusions about the existence of a buffer zone in both types of offenses. In addition, a hypothesis whether it is possible to predict if the perpetrator is a commuter or a marauder before his apprehension was verified. The results indicate in a significant way that it is possible to apply geographic profiling on the Polish population of perpetrators.
Słowa kluczowe
Circle theory; Commuters; Marauders; Journey to crime; Geographic profiling.