Book excerpt: In the last decade there has been a phenomenal growth in interest in crime pattern analysis. Geographic information systems are now widely used in urban police agencies throughout industrial nations. With this, scholarly interest in understanding crime patterns has grown considerably. ""Artificial Crime Analysis Systems: Using Computer Simulations and Geographic Information Systems"" discusses leading research on the use of computer simulation of crime patterns to reveal hidden processes of urban crimes, taking an interdisciplinary approach by combining criminology, computer simulation, and geographic information systems into one comprehensive resource.