Healthy City: Geographic Analysis to Stop the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track
2011 Esri CA/HI/NV Regional User Group Proceedings
Chris Ringewald
“The Los Angeles Police Department recently released five years of truancy ticket data and the Labor/Community Strategy Center and Advancement Project (LCSC/AP) wondered if patterns existed in ticket distribution, specifically whether tickets were disproportionately given to minority students in low-income communities.
“Together, as a part of a joint ‘Stop the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track’ initiative, LCSC/AP decided to analyze the data in a GIS because it would enable them to access spatial statistics and create impactful visuals to present to policymakers. Using ArcGIS 10, the team geocoded, analyzed, and mapped the 35,000+ truancy tickets, creating point, choropleth, and dot density maps, and using the point density tool in the Spatial Analysis toolbar.
“The analysis and maps reveal an uneven distribution of truancy tickets citywide, and clusters of tickets in low-income, minority communities, often within a short distance from school campuses. This project is instructive for other point-location analyses of inequality. “
- View the presentation [PDF]
