Univariate and multivariate spatio-temporal areal models to study crimes against women

Abstract

Spatio-temporal models for areal data have been extensively applied in epidemiology and public health to study geographical and temporal patterns of incidence or mortality of several diseases, mainly cancer. The utility of these models has become crucial in public health, and methodological research has evolved in line with the necessity of analyzing the increasingly more complex data registers. However, these techniques have not been used to study crimes against women, a complex and intricate problem where risk factors are not clearly identified. This dissertation is aimed at improving and developing methodology to disentangle the phenomenon of crimes against women in general and in India in particular.