Machine learning in crime prediction

Predicting crimes before they occur can save lives and losses of property. With the help of machine learning, many researchers have studied predicting crimes extensively. In this paper, we evaluate state-of-the-art crime prediction techniques that are available in the last decade, discuss possible challenges, and provide a discussion about the future work that could be conducted in the field of crime prediction. Although many works aim to predict crimes, the datasets they used and methods that are applied are numerous. Using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) methodology, we aim to collect and synthesize the required knowledge regarding machine learning-based crime prediction and help both law enforcement authorities and scientists to mitigate and prevent future crime occurrences. We focus primarily on 68 selected machine learning papers that predict crime. We formulate eight research questions and observe that the majority of the papers used a supervised machine learning approach, assuming that there is prior labeled data, and however in some cases, there is no labeled data in real-world scenarios. We have also discussed the main challenges found while conducting some of the studies by the researchers. We consider that this research paves the way for further research to help governments and countries fight crime and decrease this for better safety and security. © 2023, The Author(s).