INTRODUCTION
Each year, all sort of crimes takes place in the USA. From non-serious to heinous ones. One of the major crimes in the country is Gun Violence, so I decided to choose shooting-related incidents. Usually, when we talk about the crime-cities, we talk about NYC, LA, Chicago, and Detroit – not necessarily in that order. So, today, I wanted to focus on the lesser populous city. Since the 2020 election had everyone gossiping about how high crime in key swing states like Georgia (Atlanta), Pennsylvania (Philly), and Michigan (Detroit) could malign the election result. Having never heard much about Philadelphia’s crime record, I decided to focus on Philadelphia. From my initial research, I learned 2020 was the most violent year in last three decades (1).
Thre research questions and hypotheses for this project are:
- Since 2020 is the most violent year in three decades, I hypothesize the change is not gradual, but 2020 has noticed a sudden spike of the crimes compared to 2019 and 2018, due to COVID-19. The pandemic has greatly affected people’s livelihood and mental health. So, 2020 crime rate is higher than of 2019 and 2018.
- From my research, I learned the badlands area, informally known as Ghetto Areas, Philadelphia, are situated in North-East and North (2). So I am building another hypothesis that these areas should have seen most shooting-related crimes.
- Being in the sanctuary city (3), are undocumented immigrants involved in the shooting-related crime? Although I don’t have the data for that population being involved in such crime or not. But, also, most undocumented immigrants are either Hispanics and Asians. Their significant involvement in such crime could say whether undocumented immigrants are disposed to commit such crimes. Although, that would be a faulty conclusion, since not all Asians or Hispanics are undocumented aliens. Although, their insignificant involvement would definitely prove that illegal aliens do not involve in shooting-related crimes.
TOOLS & MATERIALS
I decided to use the spatial analytical tool Carto, since it can display data precisely according to its coordinates. I retrieved the dataset from <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="http://<!– wp:paragraph –> <p>I retrieved the dataset was pulled from https://www.opendataphilly.org/ </p> OpenPhilly. To address my research questions, I selected a dataset that gives me details about all the shooting-related crimes that took in recent years.
PROCESS
First, I tried using the JSON URL, but I learned it didn’t transfer to Carto effectively. Alternatively, I manually downloaded the dataset in the format of CSV, and then exported to Carto.
The dataset seemed fine, and among many columns, the dataset was divided into 7 seven demographics: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Unknown, and Null. The difference between Null and Unknown is, Unkown means the race of the person involved in the crime is unidentifiable or mixed, and Null means that the race-related data is missing. So I got rid of that column. After that, I jumped onto the “Maps” section of Carto, to play with my visualizations.
After getting into Maps, first of all I decided that what basemap styling would make the best sense to address my research questions.
Other important sections of Carto are Layers and Widget… the function of Layers is we can show multiple datasets together, and the function of widget is that it turns the map into interactive. It gives users to filter the data they like.
As you go further, you’ll notice that in the layers section you’d modify the styling, visuals, and legends for the data point.
In widget, you can ensure you will select the parameter by which you would want your users to filter the data. You can also decide the position of the widget. As shown below, for this project, I have chosen time-series chart that effectively shows shooting-related crimes that took place each year.
On the first dataset, I applied the Geocode analysis. By defining the Longitude and Latitude columns, Carto was then able to show each data point in its corresponding location on the map.
RESULTS
Let’s go address each research question and hypothesis one by one.
1) Since 2020 is the most violent year in three decades, I hypothesize the change is not gradual, but 2020 has noticed a sudden spike of the crimes compared to 2019 and 2018, due to COVID-19. The pandemic has greatly affected people’s livelihood and mental health. So, 2020 crime rate is higher than of 2019 and 2018.
At the first glance, you can compare the shooting-related crimes that happened in 208 and 2019, and discern, there was not much difference. Whereas 2020 has shown a much greater spike. To make sure whether it could definitely be due to the Pandemic, I decided to compare the data between 2020 and 2021. Since, the pandemic is still carried over in 2021.
We’re not even at the mid of 2021, yet you can observe the shooting-crimes of the ongoing year is cruising towards the crimes of 2020.
2. From my research, I learned the badlands area, informally known as Ghetto Areas, Philadelphia, are situated in North-East and North. So I am building another hypothesis that these areas should have seen most shooting-related crimes.
I divided the city into its 5 sections: 1) North, 2) North-East, 3) Downtown, and 4) South
North Philaeplhia:
North-East Philadelphia:
Downtown Philadelphia:
South Philadelphia:
As you can notice, my hypothesis is debunked here that the badlands area of Philadelphia, North and North-East, have seen most of the shooting-related crimes. Instead, it’s the DownTown.
3) Being the sanctuary city, are undocumented immigrants involved in the shooting-related crime? Although I don’t have the data for that population being involved in such crime or not. But, also, most undocumented immigrants are either Hispanics and Asians. Their significant involvement in such crime could say whether undocumented immigrants are disposed to commit such crimes. Although, that would be a faulty conclusion, since not all Asians or Hispanics are undocumented aliens. Although, their insignificant involvement would definitely prove that illegal aliens do not involve in shooting-related crimes.
By observing all the shooting that took place in each section of Philadelphia, Asians and Hispanics likely to rarely involve in shooting-related crimes.
REFLECTION
Carto is a wonderful tool that has helped me to affirm as well debunk my hypotheses and answer my research questions precisely. I want to reflect on my research question is that due to the lower involvement of Asian and Hispanic people, there is a reasonable possibility that the pervasive rhetoric of Conservative America is debunked. Their anti-immigration rhetoric primarily comes from the fear that the all the illegal aliens might be criminals.
However, these maps have failed to present the crime per capita (by race). That might give me insight into whether illegal aliens are actually likely to commit shooting-related crimes. Another limitation of these maps is they have failed to display any data on numbers of deaths that took per shooting. One shooting in area A could have killed 1 person, and another shooting in area B could have killed 100 people. So, the degree at which the crimes have committed might be radically different. Having such data would also help me to revisit my hypothesis that whether North and North-East Philadelphia are actually dangerous for shooting-related crimes.
REFERENCES
1) https://studentwork.prattsi.org/infovis/visualization/philadelphias-crime-stats-of-2020/
2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Badlands
3) https://www.governing.com/archive/tns-kenney-immigration-philadelphia.html