Week 8: Crime in Washington D.C.

This week we did proximity analysis to examine, first, various categories of crime in August 2009 in Washington D.C. and the relationship between the crimes and the location of police stations, and second (shown here) where juvenile crimes were committed in 2009 in D.C. and how that related to the 1000-foot-radius "drug-free" zones around the schools that Washington has mandated. In fact I am uncertain about whether the drug-free zones are effective as drug-free zones, since the vast majority of the offenses listed are non-drug-related. Moreover, we don't have data that describes the levels and distribution of crime before the drug-free zones were established. Given that 1304 offenses are listed as having been committed within the 1000-foot buffers round the schools, they don't seem to be fully effective as "crime-free" zones. That is an average of 10 offenses per school across the year, or a bit less than one per month - not a high number, but not zero either.
In the map I thought it would be interesting to see whether there are higher rates of crimes around high schools than elementary or middle schools, which is why I symbolized the schools differently. However there does not seem to be much relationship: The highest numbers of offenses are near two high schools and one elementary school. Several other high schools have low rates of crime, and the rest of the elementary and middle schools have either low or moderate levels of crime.