For my final project in Data Journalism, I have chosen to use a data set off of the Federal Governments data website, titled Offender Profile.
Describe the dataset. What kind of data does it contain?
Offender Profile is an excel document of every offender, currently serving two or more years in the Canadian Correctional Service jurisdiction. The data set includes characteristics and statistics on each inmate, including: ethnicity, age, gender, religious views, martial statues, race grouping and province.
In addition to those listed above, the document lists whether the inmate is Incarcerated or Supervised, their sentence type, their supervision type and the aggregated sentence length.
How will you use this data as the basis for a news story?
This dataset provides me with a lot of information about Canadian prisoner, across the country. The main focus of my project will be comparing prisoners in British Columbia, to those in other provinces. This dataset, easily will help facilitate this, as provinces are listed for each prisoner.
Is there anything about your data that you don’t understand?
I am a bit confused with three of the sections in the data: Incarcerated/ Supervised, Supervision Type and Sentence Type.
These three sections of the data, at first glance, but with a bit more research, I could figure out what this information is trying to tell me. Perhaps, a Criminology professor could help explain the categories.
What are some questions you hope to answer with your data?
Some questions from the data:
1. Which province has the largest number of incarcerated persons, per capita
2. Which ethnicity, or racial group is most represented in Canadian prisons, per capita
3. Is age a factor in the type of prison sentence given -- what ages are most likely to get longer sentence terms
Parker, I wanted this one. Actually though, it's a pretty good data set with lots of interesting information. You should have no problems putting together a compelling story from this. One thing to be careful of is how you address/answer your third question. If you talk to an expert, you should be able to get a theory on the correlation between age and sentence time. But remember, correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation. In other words, if people of a certain age group have longer sentences, it doesn't mean de facto that it's an age related issue. While age might have something to do with it, be sure to consider other contributing factors. Asides from that, I think you've got more than enough data to work with. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be really interesting to look at when you're done with it. Also, I'm glad that you're not sure about the differences between incarcerated and supervised and the other categories because I have no idea what it means either! And I hope that you explain it a bit in your final story.
ReplyDeleteVery nice data set, it's going to be an interesting project for sure. One concern for the story is the over representation of native people in prison and how that might skew the data. Also wondering if the offences listed are broken down into violent/non-violent offences and how that might reflect an offender aggregate. Good story.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting dataset. I like how you mentioned how you were going to narrow this story by comparing prisoners in British Columbia to other provinces. I think you ask some great questions, but If you could find the 'why' to your answers that would make a compelling story. For example, If you find out Alberta has the largest number of incarcerated persons, per capita, why?
ReplyDeleteReally cool dataset, I'm sure your story will be a good one. I think it's interesting (and a little bit weird) that it includes religion, although there are a lot of empty spaces in that column. The most important part will probably be the ethnicity. Do you plan on combining age and ethnicity for the story?
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting story since you have the perfect set of questions that are required to gear up this story. I can't wait to see how this story evolves over time. Good luck with your investigation.
ReplyDeleteGood data with a good plan. All of your questions lend themselves to graph well, allowing for easier analysis of the data.
ReplyDeleteAs you chose the issue of ethnicity for question 2, it would also be interesting to see the third question applied as well, keep on the same tangent. But age will be interesting as well. Just make sure you are accounting for the type of crimes committed: "what ages have more instances of serious crimes committed?"