Recorded Arrests on Crimes against women in Los Angeles show that young Hispanic girls are more affected.
My analysis of the relationship between all crimes on women leading to arrests in the Los Angeles area was intended to identify the most prevalent type of crime, distribution by area and the most affected group of women. while the analysis does not compare the distribution of criminal incidences between men and women, it centrally looks at incidences against that have resulted in arrests to provide a policy basis upon which better women-based policing in terms of crime prevention and management can be based.
The study uses open data from the City of Los Angeles Police Division (LAPD) 20–2021 crime database but focusses on analysis of criminal events reported after December 31st 2019. Essentially the data analyzed focusses on the years 2020 and 2021 in the active covid-19 period. It is a vital study in the context of preventing and dealing with criminal events targeted at women as a key segment of the overall population. This study’s findings, while inconclusive can provided the basis of a conversation upon which future development and security-based future policy directions can be based across the board and can be consumed by special interest groups such as the local governments and police departments, human rights activists, nonprofit organizations, security experts, state and federal agencies as well as the general population.
Of the 252 cases of arrest on crime committed against women, the leading group most affected were general crimes against children at 47 cases or 18.2%, forcible rape at 12.3% and intimate partner simple assault at 9.5% (see fig 1&2).
Broken down racially, Hispanic women are pre-dominantly the victim with 64.7 percent of all cases followed by Whites at 17.1% and Blacks at 8.7% of all cases.
Some Areas are more dangerous
The Los Angle’s 21 areas had different concentration of crime incidences. It is key to note that distribution of crimes by type per area did not necessarily reflect a homogeneous or uniform representation of crime concentration in the overall area. different areas thus are projected to have different concentrations of different types of crimes as a reflective of community factors and events. Of all crimes noted, the North Hollywood area accounted for the highest percentage at 10.3% or 26 cases followed by 77th Street and Southwest areas that had 7.9% or 20 cases each. VanNuys followed closely with 7.1% or 18 cases (see Fig 5&6).
While North Hollywood had the highest number of cases overall, it wasn’t the leading area when direct crimes against children under 15 was considered. The leading crimes in North Hollywood (Lewd acts with children) were still however targeted at children. 77th street and Southwest areas, accounting for 17% and 14.9% respectively f all general crimes against children.
This data, while inconclusive as stated above is not only acritical origination point for a conversation on addressing crimes targeted at women in Los Angeles particularly with regard to the subject period, it is vital to breaking down vulnerabilities for targeted sub-populations which in this case includes young children and young minority girls of Hispanic origin. It also pinpoints areas in which crime rates of this interest may be comparably higher.
These findings thus highlight critical security issues that necessitate some kind of policy response to mitigate against future risks and vulnerabilities. The Mayor of Los Angeles, for example, can further investigate the social, economic or political causes behind these figures and institute policies, systems of governance structures to address the same. Planners, urban designers and other community stakeholders can be aware of these facts while designing, developing and creating neighborhoods to reduce vulnerabilities. Similarly, in terms of actual security, the LAPD can design policing programmes intended to reduce crimes targeted at women, young girls and minority women. Non-profits similarly can focus on identifying underlying causes of such crimes to institute socio-economic or financial programs to reduce identified vulnerabilities. Similarly other government or nonprofit programs intended educating high-risk communities is necessary to disseminate this kind of information to the most at risk populations.
References:
https://data.lacity.org/Public-Safety/Crime-Data-from-2010-to-2019/63jg-8b9z/data
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12ZshgC9HGlEYDfrzsRu_SkSYPL-KL0gLHQthwlmevjk/edit?usp=sharing