Crime mapping in police value shops: the Pocket Man case of child sexual abuse

Abstract

It took Norwegian police 32 years to capture the Pocket Man who was responsible for more than 100 sexual abuses over that same time period. This article presents a study of the police investigations of the abuses by applying the value shop configuration. Primary activities in the value shop are (i) problem definition; (ii) investigation steps; (iii) investigation decision; (iv) investigation implementation; and (v) police performance evaluation. As discussed in this article, each value shop activity had serious deficiencies in the investigations of Pocket Man cases. The police investigation is evaluated based on modus operandi and signature as well as crime mapping using geographical information systems.

Keywords:

• geographic information system
• crime mapping
• modus operandi
• crime signature
• police service
• knowledge management
• value configuration
• criminal case