For this week’s blog post, I looked at a dataset from the City of Los Angeles. I chose to analyze LA’s Crime Data from 2010 to Present. I chose it because knowing about the crime that goes on in a city helps us better understand the dangers of the city and it’s just incredibly interesting in itself.
The dataset is organized and separated into 26 different columns:
DR Number: Division of Records number; official file number made up of a 2 digit year, area ID, and 5 digits. The date reported and the date occurred are two separate columns because there is a distinction among the two. It also includes the time the crime occurred in 24 hour military time and the Area ID that is given by the LAPD. The city of LA is divided into 21 community police stations that geographically monitor and respond to the crimes in the area. Following the ID is the area name that references a landmark or the surrounding community that it is responsible for, and the reporting district, which represents a sub-area within the geographic area. Then there is the crime code and the crime code description which indicates the crimes committed and defines it. The MO Codes or Modus Operandi, which records the activities associated with the suspect in commission of the crime. After that, there is the victim’s age, sex, and descent, F being female, M being female, X being unknown in the sex category. The premise code and description is the type of structure, vehicle, or location where the crime was committed and defines it more specifically. The weapon code used and weapon description shows and defines the weapon that was used in the crime. The status code and status description follow, IC being “investigation continuing” and AR being “adult arrested. The crime code(s) follow after, indicating the crime committed and the severity of it. Crime code 1 is the primary and most serious one, and codes 2, 3, 4 are respectively less serious offenses. Following that is the address and cross street of the crime, rounded to the nearest 100th block. Lastly, the location shows the XY coordinates of where the crime occurred rounded to the nearest 100th block.
This dataset is useful to many different people: its prospective inhabitants, its current inhabitants, and its police and government officials. The prospective inhabitants can see how dangerous the area in which they might want to move into might be and the implications that come with that (example being more dangerous equal lower cost of property generally). Its current inhabitants can see and understand the crimes being committed in their neighborhood and be more wary of certain things, like if an area had a sudden spike in assaults or robberies. And primarily, its police and government officials, as this dataset gives information on the trend of crimes and how to best combat the crimes that are being committed in their respective regions.
While this dataset is really informative, what it does leave out is the information on the perpetrator or criminal. The dataset gives us information on the VICTIM’s sex, age, descent, but not that of the offender.
If I were to start over with this data collection, I would want this data, which is frankly really overwhelming in its sheer number for the average person, to be easily accessible and analyzable to the average person. I would also add in data and statistics about how often crimes in certain areas are reported and also how often they are resolved. Like having information on how often a mugger is reported and how often they are actually caught would be really interesting and useful.