A new crime database has been compiled by criminologist Saviour Formosa, who spent five years inputting data into a GIS system to allow for a graphic representation of the overall crime scenario in Malta.

At a business breakfast held at the Excelsior Grand Hotel yesterday, Dr Formosa presented an overview of criminological analysis methods and results as based on a decade of his intensive research about crime in Malta. The activity also served to launch CrimeMalta, which aims to provide easily comprehensible crime information inclusive of Malta’s first crime maps, surveys and research services.

The results of the research, the website and its services serve as a base for more information on crime in Malta which is essential to professionals in the field, security and insurance agencies, local councils, academia and the public.

Leading security solutions firm G4S (Group 4) is supporting the initiative.

During the event, Dr Formosa presented an interpretation of his study and its results, which provides an understanding of crime trends in the Maltese islands, including the incidence of crime and crime trends by locality.

The methodologies presented covered the CRISOLA Model which integrates crime, social and land use analysis, while the RISC Model covered the risk potential of crime for global, residential and vehicular categories.



CrimeMalta website

The CrimeMalta website (www. crimemalta.com) brings you real crime analysis based on 10 years of research. In a study initiated in 1997, crimes from 1950 to date have been digitised to help create analytical tables and charts that are easy to understand and review. Using state-of-the-art technology (GIS – Geographical or Spatial Information Systems), crime reported to the Malta Police Force since 1998 has been mapped based on the offence location. This process enables spatio-temporal analysis of crimes in Malta by the location they occur in, when they are committed and the potential link to the place they occur in. Gauging a town’s risk of crime is a complex process, which result is best reviewed in that town’s relative position to the national crime rate as based on a scientific process reviewing observed and expected (predicted) rates for the diverse socio-economic, land use and crime parameters.

Another feature being developed in this site is the dynamic RISC Model for the Maltese Islands. This model enables the creation of a league table of local councils as they experience offences over time. In addition, it also allows the generation of statistical and spatio-statistical outputs.

The RISC MODEL investigates each town and village in Malta at NUTS 5 level (Local Councils) of which there are 68 in the Maltese Islands: 54 in Malta and 14 in Gozo. Based on data from 1998 onwards, each town is analysed for its risk of crime on an annual basis by types of crime of which there are 18 main categories: 17 thematic categories and a Grand Total category. The risk of crime looks at the offences in each town and gauges its risk of offence as against the national rate.

The analysis’ results is a league table of Maltese towns’ risk of crime. The result shows those local councils that are the safest to live in, the ones in between and those that are the worst off.

CrimeMalta offers a service to property buyers through an analysis of the area where they plan to acquire a property. The service creates an awareness of the risk new property owners face before they can actually move in and gauges the rate of danger in an area for such offences as theft from residence, vehicle theft, overall crime rates, etc.

More detailed RISC information is available on request. The CRISOLA and RISC Models were developed by Dr Saviour Formosa as part of his PhD research.