News
GIS Specialist Chieko Maene created a map of robberies near the University of Chicago campus by year, 2001-2010, using City of Chicago Police Department crime records (above). For questions or requests for data analysis assistance, please contact the GIS Specialists via email, gis@lists.uchicago.edu.
Donald Bogue (above), PRC Research Associate, was named a 2011 International Union for Scientific Study of Populations (IUSSP) Laureate and Population Association of America (PAA) Honoree.
The ICPSR offered a Webinar on the new NSF data management policy requirement. Click on picture (above) to begin the Webinar.
James Heckman (above), PRC Research Associate, was recently elected to presidency of the Econometric Society.
Melissa Gilliam (above), PRC Research Associate, was featured in the January 2011 issue of Chicago Magazine.
4.6 million Chicago Crime Records (2001 to Present) Now Available - An update from Chieko Maene, PRC GIS Sepecialist
It has been a week since the City of Chicago released crime records of the past 10 years - dating back to January 1st, 2001. We now can download over 4.6 million crime records with detailed geographic information from the Chicago's Data Portal site without going through a lengthy data user approval process.
Since the data comes with geographic coordinates, we can use the data to match up spatially (i.e. based on proximity or geographic boundaries) with other datasets, such as schools, public housing, businesses, real estate properties, land use, TIF, demographic and socio-economic data from censuses and the American Community Surveys, to examine correlations or measure the impact of one on the other.
The total size of the data file was 918 MB in the CSV format (note: the Excel format export options on the site didn't seem to work for large files.) The data lacks a "time" variable, and thus we don't know the time of day in which crimes occurred. Also missing is information about offenders and victims.
I also checked the data quality by comparing it with the official crime statistics published in the Police Department Annual Reports. Using summary statistics by community from both sources from 2001 and 2008, I found that most variables resulted in the same or similar values. The small discrepancies found could be attributed to the fact that this version of micro crime data may include preliminary information as mentioned in the dataset description.
For questions or requests for data analysis assistance, please contact the GIS Specialists via email, gis@lists.uchicago.edu. More information on GIS support at the Pop Center is available at http://popcenter.uchicago.edu/gis/.
Bogue Named IUSSP Laureate and PAA Honoree
In recognition of his many outstanding contributions to the field of demography, PRC Research Associate Donald Bogue was awarded two lifetime acheivement awards. The International Union for Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) Council in Paris named Dr. Bogue the 2011 IUSSP Laureate. Additionally, the Population Association of America (PAA) named Dr. Bogue a 2011 PAA Honoree. The award ceremony for both achievements will take place at the PAA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. on March 30th.
Dr. Bogue’s exemplary academic career has spanned over six decades. He graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1939 with a BA in sociology and went on to receive his MA in sociology from Washington State College in 1940. Following his service in the U.S. Navy, Dr. Bogue received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1949 with the dissertation, “The Structure of the Metropolitan Community: A Study of Dominance and Sub-dominance.” He has been a member of the University of Chicago Department of Sociology faculty since 1954 where he is currently an Emeritus Professor. He has been affiliated with NORC at the University of Chicago since 1959 where he has been has been a Research Associate at the Population Research Center and the Center on Aging for over 25 years. In 1964, he was elected President of PAA and founded the journal Demography, which became the official journal of the Population Association of America (PAA).
Dr. Bogue continues his prolific and active research career in the field of demography with current focuses on the causes and consequences of mobility on nations, communities, and neighborhoods; never married older adults, and the changing household and family status of women.
Data Management Plan
The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) hosted a Webinar, "Guidance on Preparing a Data Management Plan" on Wednesday, January 12. Many federal funding agencies, including NIH and most recently NSF, are requiring that grant applications contain data management plans for projects involving data collection. To support researchers in meeting this requirement, ICPSR provided a set of tools and resources for creating data management plans. The Webinar covered topics including: suggested elements of a data management plan, example language, ICPSR's data management plan website, and additional resources for preparing a data management plan. See recording of Webinar and slides from the Webinar at Webinar >> and Slides >>
The following excerpt is from the NSF regarding the new Data Management Plan requirement:
"Proposals submitted or due on or after January 18, 2011, must include a supplementary document of no more than two pages labeled Data Management Plan. This supplementary document should describe how the proposal will conform to NSF policy on the dissemination and sharing of research results. See Grant Proposal Guide (GPG) Chapter II.C.2.j for full policy implementation."
heckman elected to presidency of econometric society
Population Research Center research associate, James J. Heckman has been elected to the presidency of the Econometric Society. Heckman has been elected Second Vice-President, will become First Vice-President in 2012, and President in 2013. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. His research integrates econometrics, economic theory and policy analysis.
The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in its relation to statistics and mathematics. The Society aims to promote studies that attempt to unify the theoretical-quantitative and empirical-quantitative approach to economic problems by employing constructive and rigorous thinking characteristic of the natural sciences. The Econometric Society was founded in 1930, by Yale economist Irving Fisher and the Norwegian economist Ragnar Frisch, who later was the first economist to be awarded the Nobel Prize. Henry Schultz of the University of Chicago was a founder of the Society, and it is fitting that Heckman holds the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Chair in Economics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
gilliam featured in chicago magazine
Melissa Gilliam, PRC Research Associate, was featured in the January 2011 issue of Chicago Magazine in the article "U of C Doc Melissa Gilliam Fights Teen Pregnancies." Gilliam, an Associate Professor and Section Chief of Family Planning in the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology at the University of Chicago, is an active researcher who focuses on contraceptive use among teens and women who are at risk for unintended pregnancy.
The Chicago Magazine article explored Gilliam's current research on contraception usage and the factors that lead to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among U.S. teens.
The January 2011 issue of Chicago Magazine is available online at Chicago Magazine >>