'Narrow and deep' analysis

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A 'narrow and deep' audit looks in detail at the underlying characteristics of why problems occur and what factors can be manipulated to reduce them.

Areas that could be covered by a 'narrow and deep' analysis in include:

breakdown of offence types within broad crime and disorder categories
victims analysis
offender analysis
impact analysis, e.g. economic costs, social costs, emotional costs
risk profiles, e.g. temporal analysis, location analysis, crime types, people/items involved
overlaying different agencies' data sets
overlaying socio-demographic information

Here is a worked example of how you might conduct a 'narrow and deep' analysis:

Further analysis of vehicle crime in the area shows that the problem is thefts from vehicles.
These offences are concentrated within a new hotspot area - the car park and surrounding areas of a local industrial estate. This has not shown up as a problem location through previous data .
Cars targeted are mainly older models belonging to employees working on the industrial estate. Items stolen are predominantly small/portable and have usually been left on display inside the cars: loose change, car stereos, coats, tools etc.
Offenders are predominantly male, aged between 16 and 20.
Offending peaks during the night shift hours 10pm-2pm, Monday to Friday during the winter months.
Overlaying Fire Service data shows that the Fire Service has experienced an increase in hoax calls relating to this location during the past year.
Costs in Police, Local Authority and Fire Service time for dealing with the offenders and correcting damage are estimated at £250,000 per year.

Here is a related example for a drug audit review:

Both custody suite information and information from treatment agencies indicate that drug related offenders are predominantly male between the ages of 20 and 30.

The hotspots for drug offences has been the XX estate, where the majority of complaints and arrests have occurred over the last 3 years.

This has had a knock-on-effect on the council, as they have received a lot of complaints and have an increasing number of empty properties on this estate.

The most common type of drug misuse tends to be the infection of heroin, which has increased by 15% over the last 3 years.

Offences committed by these offenders tends to be street robbery and shoplifting, both of which have significantly increased over the last 3 years.
There has been no increase in domestic burglary over the last 3 years.

Last update: 10/03/04

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