Geographical profiling of thiefs in Barcelona Perfil geográfico do furtador em Barcelona

ABSTRACT Theft is the most recurrent crime in Barcelona and causes a perception of public insecurity that generates the need to create prevention and intervention strategies by the police, being of great help the geographic profile. The main objective of this research is to establish the geospatial profile of a sample of thieves, through an empirical, descriptive and applied study, in which the quantitative method is used. It started from an initial sample of 66 shoplifters to analyze the characteristics of the distances from home to theft, and a second sample of 15 to analyze the characterization of commuters vs. marauders, as well as the safety zone and the decay distance. Coinciding with the theory, night robbers live closer to the place of theft than daytime robbers, most of them reside in the metropolitan area and steal about 5 km from their home; they are distributed equally between commuters and marauders, traveling the latter shorter distances and committing offenses on a recurring basis. Specifically in Barcelona, three out of ten robs within 70 days after the theft, and the marauders, between a range located 0.36 km from the home (safety zone) up to approximately 3 km (decay distance).