Threshold Analysis: Differential Technique for Interpreting Criminal Records in Colombia (2019)

Abstract

In the world, crime is measured based on indicators tha represent criminality and figures of violence. For this reason, it is important to establish the driving factors of criminality on a jurisprudential and criminal level. In Colombia, consolidating this measurement poses various challenges. However, homicide remains one of the most representative crimes, not only because of the veracity of the statistical data it generates, but because cognitive, social and economic conditions associated with the victim or aggressor are circumscribed within the action’s execution (Brookman, 2005). The methodology is focused on explaining, interpreting and applying the concepts developed in the “threshold analysis” using data from SIEDCO². In this study’s case, common homicides recorded in 2019 in the city of Bogotá were correlated with this city’s behavior in the last five years by localities, as well as by political departments and municipalities on a national level. Using the above, another information analysis tool that allows interpreting from an objective perspective will be made known. As a result, it was established that the “threshold analysis” allows combining historical data, averages and standard deviations to methodologically determine and guide timely decision-making, recognizing crime pattern detection (positive and negative) on different levels of geographic disaggregation (regions, departments, municipalities, localities, communes, neighborhoods, etc.), contributing to developing public policies in terms of coexistence and security, and planning and distributing interinstitutional efforts against the conducts that affect the community.