Spring 2011 Update
Joel Caplan
Dear RTM user,
On behalf of the Rutgers Center on Public Security (RCPS), below is an update about risk terrain modeling (RTM) and the RTM Manual that you downloaded at www.riskterrainmodeling.com. As promised in previous reports, we’ll keep this email brief but informative.
***User Response and Access***
-- Since its first posting at the end of June 2010, the RTM Manual has been downloaded over 720 times from users in many different countries. Plus, over 60 hard copies of the RTM Manual in full color have been sold at Amazon.com (http://amzn.com/1453698531). A free PDF download continues to be available online.
-- You can share your thoughts and read what others have to say at the Risk Terrain Modeling Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/risk-terrain-modeling).
***Update on Applications***
-- We have been working through the Spring on a RTM for Spatial Risk Assessment Workshop Webinar to provide online instruction to those interested in expanding their knowledge of risk terrain modeling. We recently completed a trial run with our students and we are confident that the webinar is comprehensive and easy to participate in. For more information about upcoming webinar dates, or to register, go to www.rutgerscps.org/rtm/webinar.html
-- We continue to work with software developers and interested stakeholders to develop an open source (i.e. free and publicly available) RTM software application that would guide analysts and automate the steps of risk terrain map production. Ironically, making stuff free costs a lot, so it's been a slower than desired process as we regularly look for funding. Please stay tuned!
***Recent Peer Reviewed Articles and Chapters***
-- We are completing two chapters for publication. One applies RTM to the study of terrorism in Turkey and will appear in a reader on counter-terrorism edited by Cynthia Lum and Les Kennedy to be published by Springer in the fall. The second discusses what it means to operationalize spatial influence within the context of crime analysis and applies RTM to shootings using a fixed context risk terrain map. This chapter will appear in a newly published encyclopedia on crime and place edited by G. Bruinsma and D. Weisburd. The specific volume that it will appear in is edited by S. Johnson and K. Bowers.
-- In addition, we know of four articles that incorporate RTM for the study of crime that are currently under review with major scholarly journals. We will post these as they complete the review process (hopefully successfully).
***Supplementary Material***
-- Supplemental tutorials that assist with RTM are routinely added to website. One example is a video simulation of the entire procedure of risk terrain modeling. There are also new research briefs, case studies, and literature reviews of known crime risk factors for 14 different types of crimes. Check these items out at www.riskterrainmodeling.com
-- We continue to work on a Risk Terrain Modeling Manual for Global Risk Assessment and hope that it will be completed by the end of the summer. Among many examples, this manual demonstrates how to use RTM for the study of armed conflict. It has been a challenge to get the data that we need but Yasemin Gaziarifoglu, one of our graduate students, has persisted in her analysis and a final version of this analysis will be available soon. If you are interested in how RTM can be uniquely applied at the global level, this publication is especially for you.
***Dissemination of The RTM Approach***
There have been some applications completed of RTM around the country.
-- Tana Gurule (Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas) used RTM in a poster presentation titled "Risk of Auto Theft: Predicting Spatial Distributions of Crime. We found this related link online: http://digitalcommons.library.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=grad_symposium&sei-redir=1#search=%22Risk+of+Auto+Theft:+Predicting+Spatial+Distributions+of+Crime%22
-- A Masters thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School, “To The Greatest Lengths: Al Qaeda, Proximity, And Recruitment Risk” by Ismael R. Rodriguez, used RTM in the study of terrorist groups. We found this related link online: http://www.hsdl.org/?view&doc=137197&coll=limited
-- Les Kennedy presented a paper on risk terrain modeling at the Association of American Geographers annual meeting, Seattle, April 2011
-- As many of you know, the NIJ Crime Mapping Research Conference in Miami was cancelled, but we understand that it will be rescheduled for the fall. We hope that Joel Caplan will present a 3 hour workshop on RTM and Eric Piza will present a RTM-related paper—as originally planned.
-- We have planned a special session on RTM for the upcoming meetings of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) in Washington, DC in November. We hope to see you there.
***Until our next (infrequent) update, check out www.riskterrainmodeling.com for events, news, publications, research briefs, case studies, and more regarding RTM. Also, send us your work to post at www.riskterrainmodeling.com.
***We welcome your feedback! Please tell us how you are using RTM and/or if you have any constructive feedback. Send a brief or lengthy email to rutge...@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully,
Les Kennedy and Joel Caplan
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Joel M. Caplan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor | Rutgers University | School of Criminal Justice
Associate Director | Rutgers Center on Public Security | www.rutgerscps.org
123 Washington Street | Newark, NJ 07102 | Office 973-353-1304 | jca...@newark.rutgers.edu
Google Voice (Reach me by phone, anywhere I am): 347-625-7227
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"GIS for Public Safety: An Annotated Guide to ArcGIS Tools & Procedures" | Free pdf at www.rutgerscps.org/gisbook
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Spatial risk assessment | www.riskterrainmodeling.com
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NOTE: This email may have been typed using voice dictation software. Please excuse any grammatical or word-choice errors.
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