QSS_Honors_Thesis.pdf (Click me!)
Synopsis: While the media often overlooks school gun violenc in relation to gang presence—such as targeted attacks and drive-by shootings—I will examine how this environmental mechanism of of Chicago gangs contributes to elevated rates of gun violence, crime, and school gun violence in Chicago. Although, this study focuses on the less-publicized, smaller-scale school gun violence incidents, I explore a socialization framework and Gun Violence Intervention Model (GVIM) to examine how school gun violence manifests from environmental mechanisms. These mechanisms—often overlooked in earlier work—are community-specific and, I propose, closely tied to gang presence.....At the core of this research is the idea that gun violence, especially in schools, is not just random. Gang territories act like invisible borders in the city. I argue that schools are shaped by their social environments, and gang-influenced areas are often overlooked in mainstream media but are vital for understanding everyday gun and crime threats some students face in school.
The Point wise Conditional Intensity (x) of Gun Violence Incidents in Chicago
(2007–2024)(excluding the year 2013). The intensity function reflects the estimated risk of shootings, with higher
concentrations near the South and West Sides. With gang boundaries used as a covariate in the IPPP model, these regions are in line with prevalent intersecting gang terrritories and experience the greatest likely hood of school gun violence cases. Gang territories was studied from 2007- 2024 based on the availability of gang territory data.
A promising direction for future research includes: uncovering how specific aspects of gang activity internally (eg. gun distribution, drug trafficking, and initiation) escalate the likelihood of violence; identifying the most effective methods for determining whether gang presence typically precedes school gun violence; and analyzing what proportion of school gun violence cases are more attributable to gang dynamics versus broader gun-related issues."
Spatial IPPP: Chicago shooting cases visualized spatially over the years from 1991 to 2024 With more data points in 2010, the pattern from the initial IPPP (2007-2024) becomes recognizable
shooting_temporal_ippp1-ezgif.com-video-to-mp4-converter.mp4
Spatial IPPP: Chicago crime cases visualized spatially over the years from 2001to 2024
crime_temporal_ippp-ezgif.com-gif-to-mp4-converter.mp4
Note pattern in the distribution of crime instances
Visualization referenced in thesis documenting results from prior QSS 19 study on the topic of mass shootings and gun access
Income distribution Visualization (2023): Income distribution of wards while plotting the intersection of gangs from 2007-2024. (Note: there was a 34,000,000 meters squared reduction in the gang populations in these years.
Pre-model testing to determine school in vs outside gang territories
Gun Violence cases in Chicago from 2007-2024
Slideshow_template_for_thesis_defense (11) (1).pdf
Image showcasing the specificity of the D3.js interactive visualization, where users can move around and explore Chicago schools, gang territories, and gun violence cases (clustered)
