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Charting a New Direction: Exploring the Future of Justice Mapping

NCJ Number
227053
Author(s)
Nancy La Vigne; Brian Elderbroom; Diana Brazzell
Date Published
September 2008
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This research brief examines the new opportunities that “mapping” has created for exploring and understanding criminal justice issues, with attention to what has already been achieved through justice mapping and the examination of cutting-edge developments in the field, particularly regarding ex-inmates’ reentry into their home communities.
Abstract
“Justice mapping” is the use of geographic information systems (GIS), a computerized mapping technology, as a tool for depicting and analyzing the spatial dynamics of criminal justice issues such as crime, incarceration, and prisoner reentry. Mapping encourages new place-based approaches to problem solving. A place-based approach uses geographic location as the key unit of analysis in exploring the ways in which various social and political forces interact to influence neighborhoods and communities. Local law enforcement agencies began using computer mapping technology several years ago in order to identify locations of concentrated crime or “hot spots,” in order to enhance the strategic deployment of police resources and problem solving strategies. The corrections field has been slower than the law enforcement field in investing in mapping technology. In recent years, however, corrections agencies and their community partners began to explore the impact of incarceration and reentry after release from prison by mapping the spatial distribution of persons returning home from prison. These efforts were enhanced by the creation of the urban Institute’s Reentry Mapping Network (RMN) project in 2001. The RMN is a partnership among community-based research organizations in 15 jurisdictions. The RMN features mapping as a means of displaying and analyzing the relationship between patterns of ex-prisoner reentry and poverty, crime, homelessness, voter disenfranchisement, education levels, and the allocation of public assistance. Using maps, caseworkers can identify the location of resources such as services, housing, and transportation in relation to where the ex-inmate lives and/or works. Mapping can also be used to track and manage caseloads. 6 notes and a listing of 4 resources