Dom Jasinauskas, Data journalism

Crime Rates Amongst Coronavirus Pandemic

By Dom Jasinauskas and Myra Leon

Creator: Raed Mansour, Source: Wikimedia Commons

Chicago Crime During Pandemic

While a stern shelter-in-place order from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot has moved Chicagoans indoors during the global pandemic, it hasn’t exactly put a halt to crime, an analysis of Chicago and FBI crime data shows.

The shelter-in-place order, which took effect on March 21 and has been extended twice through May, has forced the public to readjust their daily routine for the safety of everyone. Prior to that, many Chicagoans self-quarantined for up to two weeks as precaution against the deadly coronavirus.

And the data show that criminals may have made similar adjustments, too.

Chicago crimes are still being committed regardless of the shelter-in-place, particularly in four key areas: homicides, residential burglaries, scams and online child exploitation. Comparisons were made between March 2019 and March 2020.

Homicides

According to data from the Cook County Medical Examiner, in March 2019 there were 30 homicide deaths in Chicago, while March of 2020 had 29 deaths. These homicides were caused from gunshot wounds or gunshot-wound complications.

The absence of change between 2020 and 2019 showed that even a global pandemic did not affect Chicago’s homicide rate in the short-term.

Robberies

We contacted a police officer to get their thoughts. They agreed to share their opinion at the request to stay anonymous. Chicago Police Officer “Matthews” said he has felt that there has been a decrease in robberies and burglaries in the far South Side.

Officer Matthews stated, “As communities are being asked to shelter in place (if they are not essential workers), This makes the opportunity to commit robbery less likely. Moreover people are home now, so opportunities to possibly burglarize someone’s home (when they are not there) are less likely, making burglaries less of an option right now. Moreover, with many places of business being closed or having decreased hours, thefts of businesses are also decreasing.”

The 2019 and 2020 data from the City of Chicago Data Portal supports Matthew’s analysis. From the beginning of March to April 20, 2019, there were 616 residency thefts. During the same period in 2020, there were only 452. Over a hundred less residential thefts were committed. This data comparison shows that while some crimes are staying stagnant, others are indeed decreasing.

Click here for the full interactive chart.

Chicago city officials have not directly attributed the city’s recent crime drop to the pandemic but have acknowledged it has coincided with the coronavirus. Several neighborhood businesses and some stores along Michigan Avenue have boarded up windows and doors after closing to reduce the risk of burglaries.

Creator: Chicago Man, Source: CreativeCommons

Fraud and scams

On March 20, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a public service announcement declaring that they have seen a rise in fraud schemes related to the coronavirus pandemic. Scammers are seeing this as an opportunity to steal people’s money, personal information, or both.

According to the FBI, the common fraud schemes include fake Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emails, phishing emails and counterfeit treatments or equipment.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) Scam Tracker indicates that there were 18 coronavirus-related scams reported in Illinois as of March 14. However, out of those 18 only two scams were reported in the Chicagoland area.

“Email vulnerabilities are scams that don’t typically change. The only change now is the coronavirus topic within the subject line that causes people to panic,” said Siobhan Johnson, Special Agent and Public Affairs Officer from the FBI-Chicago Division.

Johnson said that one scam she anticipates to see a rise in are business email compromises. She added that this scheme involves workers receiving emails from someone they believe is a company they normally conduct business with as an attempt to reveal their personal information.

“Scammers have been targeting people from the government and have now moved to people working online,” said Johnson. “The victims that are most affected by these crimes are young adults and elderly people.”

Johnson added that young adults should be careful with what they post on their social media platforms because it can reveal potential answers to their security questions. Overall, she urges everyone to use good “cyber-hygiene” and security measures.

Click here for the full graphic

Child exploitation

Another crime that has been on the FBI’s radar is online child exploitation.

On March 23, the FBI issued a press release to inform parents, educators, caregivers and children about the increased risk of child exploitation due to the newly developing environment.

According to the FBI, online sexual exploitation comes in many forms. Individuals may coerce victims into providing sexually explicit images or videos of themselves, often in compliance with offenders’ threats to post the images publicly.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported that the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program conducted more than 81,000 investigations and 85,700 forensic exams during the 2019 fiscal year. These efforts resulted in the arrests of more than 9,500 individuals.

Johnson encouraged parents and caregivers to find an opportunity to teach their children about Internet safety and safe online surfing.

When asked if the FBI anticipated these crimes, Johnson said that the FBI knew these crimes were imminent and were prepared for it.

“Everytime there is a crisis, scammers are behind it,” said Johnson. “It is important to stop, take a deep breath, and look at the information before taking any further steps.”

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Your thoughts

As the coronavirus continues to spread, there are more precautions being taken. As of April 22, 2020, there are 9,313 confirmed coronavirus cases in Cook County (this excludes Chicago, Evanston, Oak Park, Skokie, and Stickney Township).

According to The New York Times, the Cook County jail is now the nation’s largest-known source of coronavirus infections. One measure the Cook County Sheriff’s Office took included the release of several hundred inmates charged with or convicted of nonviolent crimes.

Although the inmates that were released were charged with nonviolent crimes, could this decision potentially affect other crime rates in Chicago? Or will they stay stagnant? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

Sanders vs Biden

At a time, where our selection for presidential candidates is narrowing down, it is important to view the main remaining candidates and their policies. By reviewing and having their policies organized and factually stated, it helps see their information more concretely. There is no confusion or miscommunication between who the candidates are.

Sanders is a politician that the younger pool of voters admire. He has an immense online presence. He supports the Green New Deal, Medicare for all, Immigration reform, and as well as many other policies. Biden was the 47th vice president, but was also represented Delaware from 1973-2009. His main policies is reworking the wage system, tax reform, and free college. Both candidates want to support the middle class working people and help turn the tide against the rich.

City of Chicago, Data Maps

For full chart, click here

It is important to review the availability of such a commonly forgotten service. By combining the in-service divvy stations, with Chicago neighborhoods, one is able to see where the emphasize of the bikes is placed.

There seems to be an equal spread of stations between most neighborhoods. With a slight increase in places in more populated areas. What this map helps show is areas that are lacking in stations. Hopefully this marks an area that Divvy can expand to next. Certain southern neighborhoods seem to be lacking in stations. Divvy seems to be very organized in how they place their stations. South of 87th street, all in service stations stop.

Google trends: Popularity Contest and Congress versus Zuckerberg

Data found by Google trends. To view full graphic, click here.

In such a polarized politic time, it important to understand not just what is going on, but who can fix what is going on. By following this google trends graphic, we are able to see what democratic candidate is getting the most attention.

As the political climate starts to heat up, it is important to see who is drawing the most curiosity from the public. Bought advertisements can sometimes make a candidate seem louder than they actually are in a race. It creates a bias towards someone that’s not actually there. By viewing the google trends information, we are able to better understand who is resonating with people, without the bias of bought noise.

We can see with the trends that at the start of February as voting starts, Bernie Sanders pulls away drastically from the other candidates. Biden, Warren, and Bloomberg seem to be grouped together without any real runner up for Sanders. Biden and Warren seemed tied for searches with Bloomberg in last place.

Sanders has a reputation for having a strong online presence and this helps confirms it. It shows how much interactive and curious people are about Sanders.

Congress versus Zuckerberg

View full chart here, data found through Google trends.

In this first chart, we can see Mark zuckerberg’s trend jump significantly. From a stable search trend, he jumps to about peak popularity. October, 2019 is when Zuckerberg went in front of congress with the hopes of talking about Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra, but instead got questioned for mistrust with facebook in general. A scandal followed for how facebook invades privacy.

The idea was to not trust facebook anymore, that it was invasive. But people did not avoid it, the scandal made no significant change at all. Facebook’s popularity is unwavering in the short-term.

View full graphic here

By looking at the graph, one can tell that the scandal had no real effect on the people logging into facebook. The popularity of Facebook was not effected by one of its owners being questioned about data privacy, Russian election interference, and overall lack of trust. Congress used the time to not help move Libra but instead make sure Zuckerberg was more aware of where congress stood with Facebook.

It is interesting to see how a figure head of Facebook can have such a small effect on the website. The graphic help shows how popular Facebook really is.

Graphics created using Google trends by Dom Jasinauskas.

Top Medal Winners

View full interactive graphic here

The USA leads the chart with 2,828 total medals. The record set by the Soviet Union still holds second place, with 1,204 total medals. Which is then followed closely by Germany, with 1,004 medals. Germany is then followed by Great Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, China, Russia, and the record of East Germany.

The winner medals themselves were originally solid gold but have been changed to gold-plated silver. Although, each gold medal has to still contain six grams of pure gold. The runner-ups get a silver metal, while third place gets a bronze medal. In 1948, certificates were introduced for athletes that place fourth, fifth, or sixth place. In 1984, the introduced victory diplomas for seventh and eighth place.

The idea of the Olympic Games have been around since the 17th century but the International Olympic Games that we are familiar with, started in 1896. 14 nations and 241 athletes were invited to Athens, Greece to participate.

Throughout the years, changes and alternations have happened to the Olympics Games. Like the addition of the Winter Games section in 1920. Also, the Paralympics in 1960. In 2001, the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee joined together. The latest addition is the Youth Games, created in 2010. Athletes between 14 and 18 are welcomed to participate.

Currently the Olympics has grown from 14 nations to 204 participating nations.

Although the Games are sometimes skeptical in their impact on an areas economic benefits, it has been said to be vastly positive for humanly causes. The Olympic Games are often seen as an extremely philanthropic way for countries to bond and create history. Here is an additional article with more information on the economical impact the Olympic Games can have on a country. It sums up the idea of how rarely do economies benefit from the Olympic Games, if not go into debt to repay the cost of being a host. People justify this by the camaraderie in brings between people and countries.

Chicago Pride Parade Attendance 1985-2014

Link to full graphic: https://www.datawrapper.de/_/eL7M2/

The graphic above shows the attendance data from the Chicago Pride Parade from 1985 to 2014. It shows a consistent growth in participators.

Throughout the thirty year age, attendance skyrockets. 2013 and 2014 share a similar high ranking attendance. 2014 shows a 28 time increase from 1985.

The Chicago pride parade was first celebrated in 1970. It is now considered one of the largest in the world. The popularity of the Pride parade has started a Pride festival for also twenty years. This draws in over another 100,000 participants.

Quinn: Pensions Threatening MAP Grant Program

**Gov. Pat Quinn talks about MAP grants at DePaul University. (Photo/Bob Smith)**

Editor’s note: This story was originally posted on Dec. 12, 2012 and is housed at RedLineProject.org

By Bob Smith

Gov. Pat Quinn visited DePaul University’s Loop campus on Wednesday to discuss how pension reform is harming the Monetary Award Program (MAP) college scholarships and access to higher education in Illinois.

“This is so important to our state, not only in the past, but certainly now and in the future,” Quinn said.
“We want everyone to have the opportunity to go to college that has the ability to go to college.”

MAP grants are need-based college scholarships that allow merit students who are in need across the state and do not need to be repaid by the student. Quinn said that due to cutbacks and having to pay more money in the pension amount, almost 18,000 students lost their MAP grant scholarships this year.

“We do not want anyone denied that opportunity because of finances,” Quinn said. “We can’t afford to lose all the talent that exists, all the ability that exists for higher education to help our economy and to help all of us, because there are financial challenges that deny someone the opportunity to go to community college or a four-year university — public and private — in our state.”

“Every year over 5,000 DePaul students receive MAP grants, and just like the students who have already spoken here today, all of these DePaul students rely on this funding in order to continue their college careers,” Clemmons said.

“Because the number of Illinois students eligible to receive MAP is currently increasing, existing funding does not allow the state to assist all the eligible students. As a result, without action by the Illinois state leadership, more DePaul students than ever will see their MAP funding disappear this year and more

DePaul students than ever will be forced to give up their education due to finances.”

More than 150,000 students nationally receive MAP grants each year.

Clemmons told the audience that on Tuesday, DePaul’s SGA unanimously

Ken Thomas, a University of Illinois Board of Trustees student member, MAP recipient and University of Illinois Chicago student, told how he wouldn’t be where he is today if it wasn’t for the MAP grant.

“My mom, when I was in high school, had to work two jobs just to keep food on the table,” Thomas said, “and if we didn’t have [the] MAP program like we do today, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today; graduating with a degree, hoping to be a productive member of society.”

Having a productive and functioning society and economy is what Quinn says it’s all about.

“Jobs follow brainpower,” he said. “We want to make sure we have smart people in Illinois. Well skilled, well-educated students coming out of college with graduate degrees and diplomas so they can create jobs, create new businesses,” he said. “Our goal in Illinois is to have at least 60 percent of the adults in our

state with a college degree or college associate degree or career certificate by the year 2025. In order to achieve we have to make sure we have a good scholarship program.”

Clemmons said that in order for that to happen, state legislatures need to reflect upon the question, “What must be done?” and do what’s required.