Victims of crime in Brazil and around the world can now log on to Wikicrimes and pinpoint the exact location where a crime was committed, as well as describing the nature and circumstances of the crime. Created by a Brazilian professor, Vasco Furtado, one of the drivers behind this initiative is the fact that crime data is often not accessible for the general public, and when it is, it may not be easy to understand, a phenomenon that is also identifiable in most EU member states.

This is an outstanding example of how user generated content can serve as a resource to empower citizens by informing them and giving victims a voice.

Such a tool could also be useful to public security forces, considering the problematic fact that many crimes are not reported to the police. For instance, European data studies support that, in average, only HALF OF THE CRIMES in Europe’s capitals are reported to the police, and even less when it comes to violent crimes .

One might hypothesize that if people do not report crimes to the police they will not report them on the internet. However, among other factors such as a reduced sense of fear or shame, the transactional costs (e.g. walking to a police station) of using the internet are, obviously, much lower.

However, Wikicrimes clearly states that it is not linked to any public security institution, highlighting the fact that “registering a criminal occurrence in WikiCrimes does not exempt the citizen from registering it with the suitable security institution.”

A quick visit to the website shows that citizens from Europe and the United Sates (and even from Irak!) are gradually beginning to use Wikicrimes.

References:

wikicrimes: http://www.wikicrimes.org/
BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7347101.stm
paper on European International Crime Survey:
http://www.europeansafetyobservatory.eu/doc/Crime%20and%20Security%20in%...