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Crab Cakes and Circus
Posted on December 20, 2019 3 Comments
With a relentless homicide epidemic ongoing, Baltimore still finds time to celebrate their football team. With so many issues around the world, we still like — and need — to be entertained.
How Many Guns Were Within 1,000 Feet of Schools in Baltimore in 2018?
Posted on May 19, 2019
Modern software programs allow you to analyze spatial data quite easily, but it may be hard to replicate what you did without a detailed how-to manual and instructions you write as you go. Programming languages such as R and others allow you to write code and comments in that code, so it will be easy to follow what you did and reproduce it time after time.
The Epidemic of Violence in Baltimore Continues
Posted on December 15, 2018
The epidemic of homicides in Baltimore continues. Violence is infectious, and Baltimore’s former “Public Enemy No. 1” is one of the latest victims.
The Sadness of It All
Posted on May 10, 2018
When I was in high school, I participated in a magnet school program called Health Occupations Students of America. The program was aimed at attracting high school students who were looking for a career in, you guessed it, health occupations. Of course, most of the kids in the program wanted to be physicians or nurses. […]
Guns and Suicide
Posted on May 7, 2018
This is going to be about suicide. Please click here to be taken to something lighter if you don’t feel like reading this today. It will always be here for you to read. I won’t get offended if you go check out puppies. I’m not really surprised when I hear that firearms are the preferred […]
The sad story of Mr. Greene
Posted on May 3, 2018 2 Comments
Back in 2016, Robert Ponsi was bicycling through a neighborhood in Baltimore when he was suddenly attacked by a group of teenagers. From WBAL: “Robert Ponsi was found with multiple stab wounds at Venable Avenue and Old York Road around 9:10 p.m., police said. He was pronounced dead at 3:51 a.m. at Johns Hopkins Hospital. […]
The “Militarization” of the Johns Hopkins University Campus
Posted on March 11, 2018 4 Comments
There’s a bill in the Maryland State Assembly that will allow Johns Hopkins University to have its own police force. From The Baltimore Sun: “The legislation already has the backing of several Baltimore lawmakers, who said it will increase safety in the city without costing taxpayer dollars. Hopkins officials said Monday in a message to […]
Is Gun Violence the Symptom or the Disease?
Posted on February 15, 2018 5 Comments
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are about 33,500 firearm deaths each year in the United States. There are also within those about 21,300 suicides by firearm each year in the United States. That’s over 50,000 a lot of people each year whose lives are ended by firearms. (Edit: I corrected the […]
Epidemic Curves and Homicide Counts in Baltimore
Posted on February 12, 2018
One of the tools that we use in the investigation of outbreaks is the epidemic curve, or, as we say in the biz, the “epi curve.” An epidemic curve is a simple graphical representation of the number of cases per a unit of time over a span of time. For example, you could graph the number […]
The Imbalances of Violence
Posted on February 4, 2018 6 Comments
There’s a theory in criminology called the “Routine Activities Theory.” The theory posits that there are three factors that figure into whether or not violence happens in a particular place and time, and how much violence happens. The three factors are targets, guardians and villains (aka “motivated offenders”). I’ll explain the factors a little more […]
EpidemioLogical 