Risk Terrain Modeling

Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) is a geospatial crime prediction method that identifies high-risk locations by analyzing environmental and geographic features that attract or facilitate crime. Developed by Joel Caplan, Lichen Kennedy, and James Miller in 2011, RTM bridges environmental criminology theory with geographic information systems (GIS) to create predictive risk maps. Unlike methods that predict offender location (e.g., geographic profiling), RTM predicts where crimes are likely to occur based on terrain characteristics, infrastructure, and social environmental factors.