Description

The project intends to help the student form a research agenda on spatial criminology based on literature review and analysis on empirical crime data in Chicago. Specifically, it focuses on the association between crime and racial segregation in Chicago and across different geographic scales. This project contributes the spatial perspectives to their association by taking account of the spatial non-stationarity or heterogeneity of their association across the city of Chicago. Crime incident data will be obtained from Chicago city data portal, and social demographic data from Census Bureau. The effect of spatial scale on the relation between crime and segregation will be examined by calculating crime rate and segregation indices at block group, tract, and Chicago community levels. Their association will be examined by spatial regression and econometric models that also account for other social economic covariates as control variables. Crime data will be clustered based on their category and intensity. Segregation measures will be calculated on areas where crime clusters. Conversely, segregation will be clustered to examine the crimes in the segregated areas. We expect better understanding of how crime and racial segregation associate in space and across spatial scales.

Tasks and Responsibilities

1. Review literature on the theories in criminology on spatial and temporal crime patterns.
2. Review measures on the racial residential segregation.
3. Aggregate crime data and social demographic data at block group, tract, and community levels, to examine the relation between crime and segregation using spatial statistical models.
4. Spatial clustering on crime data using spatial autocorrelation, and calculate segregation in the areas where crime clusters
5. Spatial clustering on segregation using spatial autocorrelation, and calculate crimes in the areas where segregation clusters
6. Summarize findings and write report.

Desired Qualifications

None Listed.