Interest in crime, especially in violent crime like murder, can easily cross the line from a desire to understand the whole of the human condition to a sleazy fetish. So Murder Map elicits a very mixed reaction in me. On one hand, the mapping of murders in London is clearly useful as an historic tool and possibly a tool of modern policy. On the other hand, do we really need another avenue for unmarried kitten stranglers to get off?
The site is brand new and currently only contains records going back a couple of years. But the plan is much grander than that.
“On its completion, our online database will contain details of every murder and manslaughter committed in London from the crimes of Jack the Ripper to the present day.”
The planned integration into this database of records from the Old Bailey is an exciting prospect. The Old Bailey was the site of London’s primary criminal court system from the late 17th to the early 20th centuries, with records of almost 200,000 cases.
Visualizing data can open up the viewers eyes to its implications, as the Londonist notes.
“Richmond, The City and Hampstead stand out as murderless pockets in an otherwise homogeneously dense circle of homicide.”
(That is, London is an old, storied and bloody city. But the blood flows is allergic to money.)
Users can filter the map results by type of murder (poison, vehicle and ligature are some of your choices). Colored pins give the same information at a glance. The site also features a daily news page and a blog, which focuses on the legal aspects of murder.
Most intriguing is the ability to click on a specific murder and see the details, what the folks at Murder Map call “the stories behind crime figures.” One such story is that of Lisa Beverly. Lisa, 30 at the time of her murder in September of last year, was beaten to death with a hammer in her home in Southeast London. Her boyfriend, Adam Mann, was convicted of murder and will be sentenced in October.
