Richard Block, PhD

About

Richard Block, professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago, has been studying the relationship between crime and community for the last 35 years. He was twice awarded Fulbright Fellowships and is the founder of the Homicide Research Working Group. He is widely recognized for his work in the development of geographic information systems (GIS) for crime analysis and database management. He participated in the development of the ICAM computer mapping facility of the Chicago Police Department and has advised many other departments on computer mapping and the spatial analysis of crime patterns. His current research includes the characteristics of space and place, such as rapid transit stations and specific housing complexes, that lead to increased risk of crime, the routes traveled by offender and victim in violent crime incidents, development of new techniques for cluster analysis and visualization of crime patterns, and the application of GIS techniques to study environmental stressors related to breast cancer.

Selected Publications

Robbery in Chicago: Testing the CrimeStat Travel Demand Model in Chicago in CrimeStat III, Developer Ned Levine, MAPS, Department of Justice, Fall 2004.

Identifying Hot Spots of Crime and Using MapInfo and CrimeStat II in CrimeStat II, Developer Ned Levine, CMRC, Department of Justice, Spring 2002.

Identifying Core Blocks of Gang Activity Using Geographic Analysis. Proceedings of the Homicide Research Working Group, 2000. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Quantico VA. Dec 2001

Perceptions of Good and Bad Judging: An Analysis of the Illinois Judicial Development Project. Legal Structures and Organization. Jerry van Hoy edit , Elsevier Press, 2001 with Kathrine Cermak

Deriving Gang Territories from Police Reports: A Methodological Note. Journal of Quantitative Criminology , Sept 2000.