Richard Block, Ph.D.

Dr. Richard Block, professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago, has been studying the relationship between crime and community for the last 35 years. He was twice awarded Fulbright Fellowships and is the founder of the Homicide Research Working Group. He is widely recognized for his work in the development of geographic information systems (GIS) for crime analysis and database management. He participated in the development of the ICAM computer mapping facility of the Chicago Police Department and has advised many other departments on computer mapping and the spatial analysis of crime patterns. His current research includes the characteristics of space and place, such as rapid transit stations and specific housing complexes, that lead to increased risk of crime, the routes traveled by offender and victim in violent crime incidents, development of new techniques for cluster analysis and visualization of crime patterns, and the application of GIS techniques to study environmental stressors related to breast cancer.