I think you fail to understand the point. The point is not too replace a map of crime, but to help develop variables that can help explain the location of crime

I think you fail to understand the point. The point is not too replace a map of crime, but to help develop variables that can help explain the location of crime. Look at what they did in their 2013 paper (http://pulse.media.mit.edu/papers/ http://pulse.media.mit.edu/papers/) that is exactly that. The problem they are trying to solve is that there are no good measures of perception to evaluate whether the environment affects crime or not. This is an old question for which there has been much research, as it is explained in the point 7 of their FAQ. http://streetscore.media.mit.edu/faq.html http://streetscore.media.mit.edu/faq.html