The use of selected methods of multidimensional comparative analysis to assess the level of crime in Polish counties in 2012

Abstract

The article attempts to identify particularly vulnerable counties which are prone to the phenomenon of crime and to create crime maps using multi-dimensional comparative analysis (MCA). As a tool for comparing Polish counties in terms of crime and identifying factors determining it, the article uses two MCA methods, i.e. the pattern and anti-pattern method, and the Ward method as an ex-ample of a hierarchical grouping method. Therefore, a synthetic measure of crime was determined, which replaces the set of many features of the examined objects (in this case they are variables characterising crime) into one aggregated normalised variable. This approach not only enables the assessment of counties using one quantity, but also allows them to be ordered in terms of the phe-nomenon under consideration.