Criminals use mental maps to target areas for crime. They look for places they are familiar with that offer opportunities for theft or burglary. A criminal will usually commit crimes in areas they know well that have crime opportunities and where they can avoid being seen. Students are asked to produce perception maps of crime in their local area from their own perspective and that of an elderly person to understand how crime is viewed differently.

1. Criminal
Geography!

2. You are a Burglar ... Where
would you burgle and why?

3. Criminal Geography
• Watch the video here and answer the
following question;
– How are mapping techniques important
to the police?

4. Where do you feel the
most unsafe?
1) Think about an area you know that you
do not feel safe in - write it down.
2) What about the place where lots of
crime would take place?
– Write down your short description.

5. Crime place perception
Draw these 2 lines into your exercise books
and place the following 8 places on the lines
LIKE DISLIKE
SAFE UNSAFE

6. Turn to p90 in the
text book or p96

8. The Criminal’s Mental Map
Different places offer different
opportunities for crime. Like shops to steal
from or houses to burgle.
We all have mental maps in our mind of
areas we know well. The criminal will commit
crimes in the areas he knows well, where
they overlap with areas of opportunity.

9. The Criminal’s Mental Map
1. Look at the places shown on your photos.
Which would you feel least safe in?
Why?
2. Explain why criminals might like the
places in photos 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

10. A ________ will use a mental ___to help
them decide which _____to target.
Usually a criminal will head for areas
that they know ____, have opportunities
for _____and where they can get ____
without being ____.
Crime Away Seen Well
Areas Criminal Map
The Criminal’s Mental Map

11. You are going to produce a PERCEPTION
MAP of crime in Surbiton.
1. Mark 3 safe places and 3 unsafe places
on the map – USE A KEY!
2. Shade the areas according to how safe
you perceive them to be
3. Repeat the process and, either as a
separate map or an overlay, create a
second map from the point of an OAP.
Perceptions of Crime:
Crime in Surbiton

13. Homework
• Imagine you are writing a letter to
Surbiton Police station, letting them
know which areas are unsafe around
Surbiton High School and why.
Include a map!