Deeper Insights: Exploring the Link Between Crime, Education, and Youth Outcomes in Chicago
This page presents interactive visualizations that explore patterns and potential correlations between crime rates and educational outcomes across Chicago's community areas. By examining data such as graduation rates alongside crime statistics, this dashboard aims to highlight trends that may inform community development, policy decisions, and public awareness. Users can investigate how educational achievement and public safety intersect geographically, providing insight into the broader social landscape of the city.
This map displays crime intensity and graduation rates by location. The size of the circles correspond to areas with greater rates of crime and the color scale correlates to the graduation rate. Based on this map it is clear that a majority of crime is centered in the center of Chicago with the southern and northern areas having much smaller concentrations. The central areas of Chicago are somewhat inconsistent with expectations because while some areas with higher crime rates have low graduation, others have high graduation rates. This could possibly be due to another factor such as population. The southern portion of Chicago aligns more with the expected behavior because a majority of the communities with low graduation rates have higher crime rates relative to the areas around them. The northern sections are less consistent because they have variable data and the crime distribution appears to be somewhat random when compared with the graduation rates.
This map displays youth related crimes based on community area over time. Based on the distribution of youth related incidents it is clear that a majority of all youth related crimes are concentrated in the center of Chicago. This is consistent with the other maps and suggests that areas prone to higher levels of crime influence youth in a way that causes them to commit more crimes. It also aligns with the previous map about crime intensity and graduation rates because a majority of these communities had lower rates of academic achievement and at the same time higher rates of youth related crimes. Community area 25, which has the highest concentration of youth related crime, also has one of the lowest student attendance rates at 79.1% which suggests that lower attendance in school generally results in more misconducts per student. It also appears that crime is at its highest points during the middle of the year suggesting that when kids aren't in school they are more likely to commit a crime.
This 3d scatter plot displays total crimes committed per community area vs college enrollment and graduation percentages. Based on the projected data there is clearly a linear relationship between graduation rates and percentages of students enrolled in college. This makes sense because generally students who perform better in high school are more likely to enroll in college. Looking at the graph from the side with total crime on the y axis and graduation rate on the x axis it appears that a majority of communities with low rates of crime have higher graduation rates. The data is somewhat spread out and there are several outliers, but a majority of the data focuses itself in the bottom right and eventually starts to branch out. The correlation between college enrollment and total crime is less clear and suggests that crime in a community doesn’t relate to students who enroll in college because the distribution of crimes committed is fairly spread out when you isolate college enrollment vs. crimes committed.
This 3d surface plot displays Total crimes committed per community area vs graduation rate and average student attendance. Based on the projected data there is a clear linear relationship between student attendance and graduation rate with the highest percentage of graduating students attending class more often than their peers who don’t graduate. The relationship between graduation rate and crime is the same as was seen in the last visualization with the highest graduation rates corresponding to the lowest levels of crime. In general a lot of the communities with higher rates of crime also have lower rates of student attendance. This is consistent with the map of youth related incidents across Chicago.
The visualizations and analyses presented reveal a strong connection between crime rates and educational outcomes across Chicago’s community areas. Higher crime levels tend to coincide with lower graduation and attendance rates, particularly in the central and southern parts of the city. While there are some inconsistencies and outliers, the overall trends suggest that improving public safety and school engagement could have a positive impact on educational achievement. These insights can serve as a valuable tool for policymakers, educators, and community leaders seeking to make informed, data-driven decisions for the betterment of Chicago’s youth and neighborhoods.