Form 1, we have been looking at crime mapping this week and your teacher may already have looked at this online resource in class which lets you study an interactive map of crime in Chicago... (click to link)
I have been having a look for a similar resource on New York and although what I found is only about the distribution of homicides (American speak for murders!), it shows that serious crime in New York also has a clear spatial pattern i.e. it occurs in specific parts of the five boroughs which make up NYC.
I have been having a look for a similar resource on New York and although what I found is only about the distribution of homicides (American speak for murders!), it shows that serious crime in New York also has a clear spatial pattern i.e. it occurs in specific parts of the five boroughs which make up NYC.
You can link to this resource (made available by the New York Times) by clicking on the image on the left. It links to a page where you can look at maps/aerial photos/homicide statistics for each of the five boroughs for 2003, 2004 and 2005. You will find, as in this photo of Brooklyn north, that homicides tend to be associated with specific parts of the city. The distribution is interesting but it becomes more interesting when you begin to look at the types of areas in question. A bit of searching in Google would help with this!Once you know what the high risk areas are, you can target policing OR you can try to do something about the areas which are most crime ridden OR you can do a bit of both. That is exactly what the NYPD and the new York City authorities have done in the last 15 years with great success. New York has almost halved its rate of serious crime in the last 15 years making it now (surprisingly perhaps) the safest large city in America! 
You can access lots of info about the NYPD by clicking on the image to the right. In particular, you might like to explore their crime statistics page which you can find here. I recommend you don't have a look at the 'most wanted felons' page if you want to sleep easy tonight!!!
Form 2, you are about to start looking at the human cost of high street fashion. We will be looking at issues such as sweat shop labour in LEDCs and in that context I was horrified to read this article from the 'Observer' two weeks ago...
Surprising fashion indeed!
