Posted: April 7th, 2015

Access vs. Excel in Crime Analysis

Access vs. Excel in Crime Analysis

Project description
Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:
Bruce & Stallo: Chapter 3 (pp. 154175)
Bruce, C. W., & Stallo, M. A. (2009). Better policing with Microsoft Office 2007. Southlake, TX: A.C.T. Now. ISBN 1439253285.

Gwinn, S., Bruce, C., Cooper, J., & Hick, S. (2008). Fundamentals of Crime Analysis. In Exploring crime analysis: Readings on essential skills (pp. 7-32). Overland Park,, Kansas: International Association of Crime Analysts.

Introduction: Access vs. Excel

Over the last few units, you have learned how to analyze data in both Access and Excel, including filtering and aggregation. Both applications have their strengths and weaknesses, and its important to know when to use one instead of the other.

Instructions

Describe two crime analysis scenarios, oriented towards one of the types of crime analysis we studied in Week 1: one in which it makes more sense to use Excel and one in which it makes more sense to use Access. In your analysis of the scenarios, explain the key differences between Excel and Access, including their comparative strengths and weaknesses.