Artificial intelligence & crime prediction: A systematic literature review

By Fatima Dakalbab and Qassim Nasir

The security of a community is its topmost priority; hence, governments must take proper actions to reduce the crime rate. Consequently, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in crime prediction is a significant and well-researched area. This study investigates AI strategies in crime prediction. We conduct a systematic literature review (SLR). Our review evaluates the models from numerous points of view, including the crime analysis type, crimes studied, prediction technique, performance metrics and evaluations, strengths and weaknesses of the proposed method, and limitations and future directions. We review 120 research papers published between 2008 and 2021 that cover AI approaches for crime prediction. We provide 34 crime categories researched by researchers and 23 distinct crime analysis methodologies after analyzing the selected research articles. On the other hand, we identify 64 different machine learning (ML) techniques for crime prediction. In addition, we observe that the most applied approach in crime prediction is the supervised learning approach. Furthermore, we discuss the evaluation and performance metrics, as well as the tools utilized in building the models and their strengths and weaknesses. Crime prediction AI techniques are a promising field of study, and there are several ML models that researchers have applied. Consequently, based upon this review, we provide advice and guidance for researchers working in this area of study.

Social Sciences & Humanities Open

Volume 6, Issue 1, 2022, 100342