Spatial analysis of criminal incidents is an old and important technique used by crime analysts. However, most of this analysis
considers the aggregate behavior of criminals rather than individual spatial behavior. Recent advances in the modeling of
spatial choice and data mining now enable us to better understand and predict individual criminal behavior in the context
of their environment. In this paper, we provide a methodology to analyze and predict the spatial behavior of criminals by
combining data mining techniques and the theory of discrete choice. The models based on this approach are shown to improve
the prediction of future crime locations when compared to traditional hot spot analysis.
Keywords Spatial choice - feature selection - preference specification - model-based clustering