Gorr Edits Special Section on Crime Forecasting
Wil Gorr, and Richard Harries of the UK Home Office have edited a special section on crime forecasting recently published in the International Journal of Forecasting (October 2003). The seven papers comprising the special section represent the first effort to establish this new application area. For over 30 years, businesses have forecasted product demand to improve planning and increase efficiency. It was not until recently, however, that advances in crime theories and widespread diffusion of IT and management innovations in police departments made forecasting feasible and relevant for police. The special section addresses unique features and challenges of forecasting crime and presents corresponding modeling and methodological innovations. There has been considerable interest in crime forecasting research done at the Heinz School by news organizations and the press including an article in New Scientist, "Computer Model Forecasts Crime Sprees," and a Wired article, "Cloudy with a Chance of Theft.' Research continues in this area with funding from a National Institute of Justice grant awarded to Professors Jacqueline Cohen and Wil Gorr.
Dr. Gorr's research interests include geographic information systems and management science models applied to public sector problems. In addition to developing leading indicator forecast models for law enforcement, decision support systems for facility location decisions, and information systems for support of policy and planning in organizations.He is a founder of Infolink, a school to work program for high school students, author of CrimeMapTutorial, a distance learning program for crime analysts in police departments.