A Re-Examination of Population Inputs for Neighborhood-based Indicators with Applications for Crime Reporting

• In Event: 420 - Research Poster Session. Communicating Sociology

Abstract

Community-based indicators are useful tools for measuring quality of life in urban environments. Comprehensive community studies are often resident-driven and longitudinal in scope and allow for informed decision making. Residential population totals often normalize such indicator data and one example is Part 1 crime rates. This measure, which examines the number of homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults, robberies, burglaries, larcenies, and auto thefts by residential population, is often utilized in studying safety and well-being in Baltimore neighborhoods. In Baltimore, the region with the consistently highest crime rate is located in the central business district downtown, which has a high raw number of crime incidents and a low residential population. Consequently, data users have questioned the use of total population as a denominator, suggesting that the overall rate does not take into account workers, shoppers, and visitors, who may be victims or perpetrators of crime. In 2012, 45% of crimes occurred between the weekday hours of 8am and 6pm, 96% of which occurred in commercial and public spaces. This research seeks to identify a new methodology for identifying daytime populations for neighborhood-based indicators. By combining a variety of datasets, such as the U.S. decennial Census, Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) datasets, public transportation loadings/unloadings, and visitor statistics to neighborhood amenities like public markets and tourist attractions, more accurate population counts can be calculated. For this session, visual presentations of the data, in map format, will allow for comparisons between the residential and daytime population denominators as it relates to specifically crime rates.

Author

• Cheryl Knott, University of Baltimore