Mapping Race, Crime, and District Attorney Elections in NYC

I've been too swamped with law school to post anything new for a while now, but the past few weeks I've been working on a series of maps for Professor Issa Kohler-Hausmann. Her new book, Misdemeanorland, looks at expanded policing for minor offenses like misdemeanors and violations. In order to get a better sense of how crime and people are distributed across the city, and how that relates to voting behavior for District Attorney elections, I put together some maps of race and ethnicity, misdemeanors and felonies, and voting in DA-elections. You should also check out the other maps and charts that Issa had made, which track campaign financing and theft-of-services violations (like jumping a turnstile). You can see them all on her companion website for the book.

The one technical aspect of this that was a bit tricky was working with the election and population data. Election information is stored by the Board of Elections at a unit called the election district. Population estimates, on the other hand, come from the census and are stored in different aggregate units like census tracts and census block groups. I came up with a simple methodology for assigning population counts to election districts, in order to create voting maps that are normalized by population. The methodology requires the assumption that population is evenly distributed geographically within each census tract, while is obviously faulty. There are lots of ways to improve this - perhaps by adding zoning and land use layers to the maps and weighting population more heavily in more residential areas. For now, you can read about the methodology I implemented for the maps posted here. 


Race/Ethnicity and Voting in District Attorney Elections

Misdemeanors, Felonies, and Race/Ethnicity

Common Prophets of Abrahamic Religions

Aaron 4AaronAbraham 4AbrahamAdam 4AdamDaniel 4DanielDavid 4Daviddelete 82Elijah 4ElijahEnoch 4EnochHud 2HudIsaac 3IsaacIsaiah2 3IsaiahIshmael 2IshmaelJacob 4JacobJeremiah2 3JeremiahJesus of Nazareth 3Jesus of NazarethJob 4JobJoel3 3JoelJohn (the Baptist) 3John (the Baptist)Joseph 4JosephMoses 4MosesMuhammad 2MuhammadNoah 4NoahSalih 2SalihShu'aib 2Shu'aibSolomon 4SolomonZechariah (priest) 3Zechariah (priest)Aaron 4AaronAbraham 4AbrahamAdam 4AdamAhijah HaShiloni 2Ahijah HaShiloniAhiyah 2AhiyahAmos 2AmosAzariah 2AzariahBaruch ben Neriah 2Baruch ben NeriahDeborah 2Deborahdelete 29Eliezer 2EliezerElijah 4ElijahElisha 3ElishaEsther 2EstherEzekiel 3EzekielGad 2GadHabakkuk 2HabakkukHaggai 2HaggaiHanani 2HananiHosea 2HoseaHuldah 2HuldahIddo 2IddoIsaac 3IsaacIsaiah 3IsaiahJacob 4JacobJahaziel 2JahazielJehu 2JehuJeremiah 3JeremiahJob 4JobJoel 3JoelJonah 3JonahJoseph 4JosephJoshua 2JoshuaKing David 4King DavidKing Solomon 4King SolomonMalachi 2MalachiMicah 2MicahMicaiah 2MicaiahMiriam 2MiriamMoses 4MosesNahum 2NahumNathan 2NathanNeriah 2NeriahNoah 4NoahObadiah 2ObadiahOded 2OdedPhinehas 2PhinehasSamuel 2SamuelSeraiah 2SeraiahShemaiah 2ShemaiahUriah 2UriahZechariah (the Priest) 3Zechariah (the Priest)Zechariah/Zacharias 2Zechariah/ZachariasZephaniah 2ZephaniahAaron (Harun) 4Aaron (Harun)Abraham 4AbrahamAdam 4Adam Danial 4DanialDavid (Daud) 4David (Daud)delete 77Elijah (Ilyas) 4Elijah (Ilyas)Elisha (Al-Yasa) 3Elisha (Al-Yasa)Enoch (Idris) 4Enoch (Idris)Ezekiel (Dhul-Kifl) 3Ezekiel (Dhul-Kifl)Ezra (Uzair) 3Ezra (Uzair)Hud2 2HudIsa (Jesus of Nazareth) 3Isa (Jesus of Nazareth)Isaac 3IsaacIshmael (Ismā'īl) 2Ishmael (Ismã'íl)Jacob (Yaqub) 4Jacob (Yaqub)Job (Ayub) 4Job (Ayub)John (the Baptist - Yahya) 3John (the Baptist - Yahya)Jonah (Yunus) 3Jonah (Yunus)Joseph (Yusuf) 4Joseph (Yusuf)Moses (Musa) 4Moses (Musa)Muhammad2 2MuhammadNoah (Nuh) 4Noah (Nuh)Saleh 2SalehSeth2 2SethShoaib 2ShoaibSolomon (Sulayman) 4Solomon (Sulayman)Zechariah/Zakariya (priest) 3Zechariah/Zakariya (priest)Aaron 4AaronAbraham 4AbrahamAdam 4AdamAhijah HaShiloni2 2Ahijah HaShiloniAhiyah2 2AhiyahAmos2 2AmosAzariah2 2AzariahBaruch ben Neriah2 2Baruch ben NeriahDaniel2 4DanielDavid2 4DavidDeborah2 2Deborahdelete 10Eliezer2 2EliezerElijah 4ElijahElisha 3ElishaEnoch2 4EnochEsther2 2EstherEzekiel/Ezechiel 3Ezekiel/EzechielEzra/Esdras 3Ezra/EsdrasGad2 2GadHabakkuk/Habacuc 2Habakkuk/HabacucHaggai/Aggeus 2Haggai/AggeusHanani2 2HananiHosea/Osee 2Hosea/OseeHuldah2 2HuldahIddo2 2IddoIsaac 3IsaacIsaiah/Isaias 3Isaiah/IsaiasJacob 4JacobJahaziel/Chaziel 2Jahaziel/ChazielJehu2 2JehuJeremiah/Jeremias 3Jeremiah/JeremiasJesus of Nazareth2 3Jesus of NazarethJob 4JobJoel2 3JoelJohn (the Baptist)2 3John (the Baptist)Jonah/Jonas 3Jonah/JonasJoseph 4JosephJoshua/Josue 2Joshua/JosueMalachi/Malachias 2Malachi/MalachiasMicah/Micheas 2Micah/MicheasMicaiah2 2MicaiahMiriam2 2MiriamMoses 4MosesNahum2 2NahumNathan2 2NathanNeriah2 2NeriahNoah 4NoahObadiah/Abdias 2Obadiah/AbdiasOded2 2OdedPhinehas2 2PhinehasSamuel2 2SamuelSeraiah2 2SeraiahSeth 2SethShemaiah2 2ShemaiahSolomon 4SolomonUriah2 2UriahZ-placeholder 3Zechariah 2ZechariahZephaniah/Sophonias 2Zephaniah/Sophonias

Many thanks to Ben Discoe for pointing out some errors in my earlier viz (Moses and Noah were floating listlessly). I took the opportunity to add prophets from Bahá'í as well. The columns now read: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Bahá'í. New lesson learned: Zechariah/Zacharias (prophet of the kingdom of Judah) and Zechariah the priest (the father of John the Baptist) are two different people. The next step might have to be a character/family tree. Source.