Spatiotemporal Analysis of Crime Distribution in Bangladesh: A GIS-Based Study of Pre and Post-July Movement 2024

This paper concerns the spatial distribution of four major crime categories-Theft, Robbery, Burglary, and Murder-across the administrative divisions of Bangladesh to bridge the knowledge gap through a preliminary application of GIS-based crime mapping. Comparative trend analysis of crime rates and absolute counts per million population in two pivotal periods, January 2024 (pre-July Movement) and September 2025 (post-July Movement), has been conducted. Such a temporal focus is highly relevant as it explores the impact of the July Movement's massive political and institutional upheaval on crime patterns and geographic clustering. Although traditional analysis would suggest that crime volume concentrates in populous urban centers such as Dhaka and Chattogram due to socio-economic environments conducive to harboring offenders, post-movement data indicates chaotic fragmentation of regional vulnerability. More precisely, data indicates extreme de-clustering in high rates in regions such as Barisal (huge drop in Theft and Robbery rates) and the sudden growth of new, intense clusters of violent crime in divisions like Rangpur (extreme spikes in Robbery and Murder). This research will establish that the transition of power led to an uneven, localized breakdown of social order, making the shifting of strategies for crime prevention away from broad, population-centric measures and toward targeted, division-specific interventions based on the new volatile post-movement crime landscape.