The crime rate is incrementing day by day, and there is a need to find out which regions are more crime prostrate so that compelling actions can be taken to deflate the crime rate by providing security measures in all the regions, especially in the more crime-prone regions. This paper provides a discursive survey on techniques used for crime pattern analysis. As we know that data analytics is an umbrella term covering different aspects such as data mining and formal concept analysis, we are focusing more on pattern analysis through formal concept analysis. This paper reviews the available literature related to crime pattern analysis depicting the methods used by various researchers followed by the research gaps. In addition to that, an introduction of formal concept analysis is depicted along with a table showing data of crime in India followed by discussion, conclusion, and the proposed work. This paper would be helpful for the starters who want to start research in this area. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020.