Texas Crime Atlas

Texas Crime Atlas is the third book in the Texas Atlas series, preceded by Texas Water Atlas and Texas Health Atlas (2008 & 2012, Texas A&M Press). Geographers Lawrence E. Estaville, Kristine Egan, and D. Kim Rossmo map state crime, as well as the crimes of nine of Texas’s largest cities: Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, and San Antonio. These maps put Texas crime into context, comparing 2007-2008 to 2009-2010 and illustrating population density, ethnicity, income, home ownership, and education alongside crime rates. The maps, rendered in full-page color, also break down crime rates into specific offenses: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft.

Through case studies, the Texas Crime Atlas explores the new geographic tactic of applied crime mapping, which has immense potential for shaping police and political policies. By applying the technique of geographic profiling to the unsolved murders attributed to the Austin Ripper in 1884-1885, the authors offer probable locations for the criminal, who was never apprehended. In another case study regarding twenty-first-century border control, the authors use the technique of kernel density to show where favorable geographic features combine to create probable “hot spots” of illegal border crossing for both immigrants and criminals.

The information in Texas Crime Atlas’s state and city maps, as well as the case studies that demonstrate how these data can be applied, make the Texas Crime Atlas a resource for law enforcement agencies, policymakers, researchers, university students, and the general public. The book concludes with a timeline of major and sensational crimes in Texas, from the nineteenth century to today.

Dr. Lawrence E. Estaville is Professor of Geography and Director of the Texas Atlas Project in the Department of Geography at Texas State University. Including the Texas Crime Atlas, he has published eight books and 47 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Numerous international, national, and state professional organizations have invited him to give presentations.

Dr. Kristine Egan is a GIS Senior Data Analyst with the City of San Antonio and a lecturer with the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is co-author of the Texas Health Atlas and was the project manager for the Texas Water Atlas.

Dr. D. Kim Rossmo is the University Endowed Chair in Criminology and the Director of the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation in the School of Criminal Justice at Texas State University. He has researched and published in the areas of environmental criminology, the geography of crime, and criminal investigations. Dr. Rossmo is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Advisory Committee for Police Investigative Operations. He has written books on criminal investigative failures and geographic profiling.

$19.95 eBook
257 pp. Bib.
Geography.
Now Available through our Online Store portal.
ISBN: 978-0-9912548-0-4