CONCLUSION

There are many factors influencing the increase in crime rates. Our analysis is specifically focused on property crimes. Each year there are thousands of reported property crimes. In our study, we can determine that dwelling values are a factor for the property crime rates. Residential areas as well as areas with low dwelling values tend to experience more property crimes due to a lack of enforcement or weaker home security (such as alarms or building security) which makes easier to target.We have also determined that summer is a popular time for property crimes because of the hot temperatures, longer hours of daylight, and common time for vacations. More people are outside and less people are staying in, making it perfect for all types of property crimes.

The VPD has provided tips on how to prevent or reduce the chances of becoming a victim. This includes strengthening home security, being aware of your surrounding and looking after your belongings. We have provided links from the VPD in the results & discussion section.

Errors and uncertainties

YEAR

Not up to date due to having to use the 2016 census for housing cost information.

CRIMES

Not all crimes are reported to the Vancouver Police Department and not all crimes are released to the public due to confidential reasons.

Our analysis mainly consists of property crime data. There are different crime types that were not used in the analysis (e.g. violent crimes, sexual assaults, etc.).

MODIFIABLE AREA UNIT PROBLEM (MAUP)

Census are is aggregated over a census administrative area. All the population in the administrative area is generalized to a mean, median, or average value. The allocation results in a visual problem where areas with parks or low amount of residential areas may appear to have lower crime rates or housing cost (ecological fallacy).

SPATIAL AUTOCORRELATION

The presence of residuals mean that there are some key variables missing in explaining the relationship between the variables that we have chosen in our analysis. It means that there is more than just the variables we are using to define the occurrence of crime rate. This issue affects the regression analysis.

future studies

We hope to further our analysis by using other crime types in Vancouver and determining other factors that may be correlated to Vancouver's crime patterns. We are dedicated to better understand the crime patterns and increase safety and awareness as a response to the rapid development in Vancouver and the increasing crime rates.