Domestic Violence in Riverside County

About The Project

I wanted to look at Domestic Violence in the Inland Empire. I did this as part of a Kaiser Health Reporting Grant with Black Voice News - a local Black owned publication in Riverside ,California.

I interviewed survivors, lawmakers, law enforcement, experts and advocates as part of my reporting.

The Final Project

https://blackvoicenews.com/2021/11/07/domestic-violence-a-frantic-call/

https://blackvoicenews.com/2021/11/14/domestic-violence-or-homeless-too-often-its-not-a-choice/

Data Used

I had to enter the data manually from the homeless point in time count because the data was only in PDF format as part of the larger Point in Time Count Report.
I also gathered Census data, HUD data, incident reports and Department of Justice Data. During my reporting I used all of this data in some form or another.
Next I set to work calculating rates and how they changed over time. I also began visualizing data which is where we began to run into problems.

False Starts and Artifacts

My first and continuing attempts at working with this data have been frustrating but I have learned a lot about how why data visualization is necessary in the reporting process and the importance of thinking critically about data. A few examples include:

The County Hospital

About the Data:

I used Domestic violence incident data, obtained through Riverside police between 2016 and 2020 and Census American Community Survey Data. There was one census tract though that had more than double the rate of Domestic Violence cases and it contained the coutnty hospital, where the rape kits are conducted. This artifact revealed what could be a story about the role hospitals and the healthcare system play in responding to Domestic Violence.

Weapons Rates

The Final Graphics