Chicago Crimes Analysis

 

I had the opportunity to analyze data collected by the City of Chicago, which records crimes occurring in the metropolis from 2001 to the present . The dataset contained over 7 million reported incidents over the past 2 decades (Chicago Police Department, 2021). In order to gain an overview of Chicago’s history with crime, I studied the count of reported crimes for the given time span.  

The total reported crime in Chicago has decreased over time. Crimes reported in the current year are the lowest they have even been since 2001. It is important to note that number of crimes steadily decreased from 2001 to 2014, but then was stagnant from 2014-2019. I was fascinated with how the number of reported crimes decreased and elected to identify some of the root causes.

One of the contributing factors to the decrease in crimes reported in Chicago is an increase in police resources. Per capita spending on the Chicago Police Department has more than doubled since 1964 (Ballesteros, 2021). With an increase in funding, the police department can hire more police officers and equip them with better resources, reducing crime. As a result of the increase in funding, police officers have been able to solve more crimes and apprehend perpetrators.

High school graduation rates are also closely related with crime rates. Research published by New York University purports that as children are in school longer and are able to graduate, there is a lesser chance that children will engage in criminal activities (Koumpilova, 2021). In 2010, the graduation rate for Chicago based high school was approximately 55%. In 2021, however, the city recorded a high school graduation rate of 82.5%, the highest ever. More sound educational policies and a greater investment in children are correlated with lower crime rates.

I realized that the overall crimes have decreased, but I wanted to examine which crimes are the most popular and how the specific counts have changed over time. The table below depicts the ten most commonly reported crimes in Chicago from 2001 to the present. The five most common crimes reported include theft, battery, criminal damage, narcotics, and assault. From the figure below, it is evident that theft is overwhelmingly the most recurring crime reported.

 

  

Throughout time, the 5 most common crimes have decreased in count. Theft, battery, and narcotics have decreased significantly, while the number of assaults reported have remained fairly stagnant. It is interesting to note that even during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, there was a downward trend in the number of crimes reported.

 As aforementioned, the increase in funding of the police budget has helped reduce crime in all aspects. There are also targeted programs that help curb certain types of crime. For example, the Chicago Police Department recently partnered with community health care providers to better enforce the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, a federal law aimed to reduce drug trafficking. Instead of incarceration, perpetrators have the opportunity to enroll in a program that offers substance use treatment. This program is currently offered in the West Side of the City and has helped 700 people across 11 different police stations (Gorner, 2020). The Chicago Police Department is in the process of making this program accessible throughout the city. Additionally, the city has [AD1] recently announced plans to add 100 more officers to its narcotics unit.

 

 

 After determining general trends in crimes, I wanted to decipher where these activities are occurring. If citizens are more aware of where crimes are occurring, they can take preventative action to ensure their safety. The figure below demonstrates that the most amount of crimes reported happen outside in the street. The next most frequent location that crimes occur in apartments and single-family homes known as residence in the graph below.  

I also tried to make a visualization of where the most common crime, theft, was occurring. Specifically, I wanted to examine which neighborhoods theft was occurring in and how that compares between each other. My software, however, was not able to load the visualization due to the limiting processing power of my computer. 

 

Works Cited

Ballesteros, C. (2021, June 27). Chicago has nearly tripled per capita police spending since 1964, Data Show. Injustice Watch. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://www.injusticewatch.org/data/2020/chicago-has-nearly-tripled-per-capita-police-spending-since-1964-data-show/.

Chicago Police Department. (2021, November 15). Crimes - 2001 to present: City of chicago: Data Portal. Chicago Data Portal. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://data.cityofchicago.org/Public-Safety/Crimes-2001-to-Present/ijzp-q8t2.

Gorner, J. (2020, November 20). Chicago police reverse course, signal move back to longer narcotics investigations. chicagotribune.com. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chicago-police-narcotics-unit-change-20201119-jng7vlkaprbo3gwm4qydmnqqje-story.html.

Koumpilova, M. (2021, October 21). Chicago High School students graduate at a record rate amid the pandemic. Chalkbeat Chicago. Retrieved November 16, 2021, from https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2021/10/21/22738645/chicago-high-school-graduation-rate-record-pandemic.