GIS is an invaluable tool for mapping and visualising data, which helps to improve understanding of location-based problems and encourage better decision making. In the case of my dissertation, I was able to use GIS to create hotspot maps to identify highly clustered areas of missing person incidents in Cheshire. Through combining multiple types of spatial data, I was able to show how deprivation, mental health, and the urban/rural makeup of different areas affects the prevalence china rcs data of missing incidents. All of this, I argue, can feed into policy to improve certain areas and help safeguard vulnerable people.
This sort of use and benefit of GIS can be seen in action across society. For instance, GIS is commonly used in the policing sector to identify whether high or low values of different crimes cluster spatially in specific areas, which is helpful for understanding location-based crime rates and making decisions about where to target resources. In fact, GIS has multiple benefits for the police: it acts as a guide for field officers, assists in the creation of crime prevention tools, helps with policy implementation, enables the testing of crime theories and increases communication across local and global agencies. The theoretical backbone of criminology is focussed on reducing criminal activity, whilst also protecting vulnerable citizens, and GIS and spatial analysis are invaluable tools for helping do so.