Forensics

Fighting Crime With Big Data

Computers predicting crime have become a staple of science fiction films, but it could soon be a reality. The way it works will be somewhat different than what we’ve seen on the big screen.

The problem is that predicting the behaviour of individuals is hard. The way we act can appear random to an outside observer, no matter our internal logic . This makes the task of calculating our next move incredibly difficult for computers. When the focus is shifted, however, to a larger scale, the task becomes much easier.

Computer models are great at analysing patterns of activity of groups. When the sample is large enough – many thousands of individuals – groups of people behave more like an ant colony or particles, with areas of concentrated activity forming and dissolving over time. At this scale predicting collective behaviour becomes much easier. This is where Big Data comes into play.