Activity 2.4: crime statistics

Introduction

This activity uses crime statistics to explore the concept of using statistical data to evaluate the liveability of an area.

Resources

• Australian reported crime victims since 2010 – dataset: this Australian Bureau of Statistics spreadsheet provides crime figures since 2010
• Earth at night – SpatialGenie map layer: students can use this map tool to look at the population density across Australia and throughout the world
• Australian urban expansion: this Geoscience Australia website can be used to show population growth and changes in urban density across a range of towns and cities in Australia
• Introduction to ratios: this video can be used to support student understanding of ratios
• Visual thinking tools: graphic organiser templates, such as the Web map and Y-chart, are available at http://www.globaleducation.edu.au/1840.html

• Activity stepsShow details
  1. Discuss as a whole class the concept of using statistical data to evaluate the liveability of an area.
  2. Focusing questions could include:
     • What is a crime rate statistic?
     • How are these numbers generated?
     • How might these statistics contribute to the perception of a place?
  3. Ask students to:
     • review a range of crimes committed, calculating crime rate percentages in comparison to the total population for each state and territory
     • work out, in percentage terms, how the national crime figures compare to the total population of Australia.
  4. Focusing questions could include:
     • Are there any differences between the types of crime committed across different states and territories?
     • Are you surprised by any of the results?
     • Can you see any correlation between the population density and the amount of crime committed?