The purpose of the study was to inform crime prevention policy by identifying areas suitable for launching specific initiatives. Specific objectives include establishing a methodology for mapping crime, offenders, and social factors in order to inform debate on primary and secondary prevention interventions. The key source of data for the report was the Western Australian Police Service’s Offence Information System (OIS) database, from which both crime and offender information was extracted. Other data sources included the Ministry of Justice’s courts database and the 1996 Australian Census. Efforts to map crime and correlate crime with social and economic factors are discussed, and include efforts at geo-coding and geographic analysis. Challenges arising from rate calculations are enumerated and replication of the methodology is examined. A brief discussion of relevant criminological theory is presented, as is a discussion of predicting future crime rates from present crime levels. Areas that could be targeted for special assistance are described and an exploratory analysis of juvenile court data is offered. An overview of study findings reveals that property offenses comprise over 80 percent of all recorded offenses in Western Australia. Within-region differences in crime rates vary substantially, as do differences in crime rates within metropolitan areas. The crime rates in each area are influenced by varying opportunities for criminal activities produced by a mix of social and economic activity, as well as differential rates of police-offender contact in different residential areas. The study also found that recorded levels of crime and police contact with offenders are important social indicators, representing the extent to which citizens call for public assistance in dealing with criminal activity. Moreover, citizen calls for police assistance can provide preliminary evidence for the consideration of relative need for crime prevention resources on a geographic basis. Finally, the study highlights the correlation between recorded crime and social and economic disadvantage. As such, prevention initiatives should incorporate elements of both social and situational crime prevention strategies. Tables, references, appendix