Mug Shots: Transgender “Johns”

This is the second in a series of articles regarding a policy of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), in conjunction with the Mayor’s office, to make publicly available (online for 30 days) mug shots of all individuals who have been arrested (not convicted) for patronizing or soliciting for prostitution. Part One: The Public Shaming of “Johns”

When we first began examining Chicago “mug shot” data, something caught our attention: a disproportionate number of transgender individuals are apparently being arrested for patronizing or soliciting for prostitution. These individuals are designated as male (actually, only men are on the website) but appear fairly definitively dressed as women in their mug shots.

This sparked our interest and provoked some questions. What proportion of those arrested are transgender and why do so many transgender individuals appear on the website?

To answer these questions (and many others), we began a systematic categorization of the mug shot subjects by race and gender. A team of trained graduate students coded the data. To infer race, they examined surnames and mug shot photos. To infer transgender status, they used visual cues based on the mug shots, such as hairstyles, make-up, and clothes. All three team members had to agree before a final code was assigned. When they disagreed, the subject’s gender was coded “unknown.” We were conservative in categorizing variables.

The results of our analysis follows, starting with where in Chicago transgender arrests are occurring. (Note: For the maps, the arrests cover the period 3/8/2010 to 3/9/2012.  For the table, the arrest dates are from 3/8/2010 to 3/30/2012.)

Mug Shots: The Public Shaming of “Johns”

This is the first installment in a series regarding a policy of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), in conjunction with the Mayor’s office, to make publicly available (online for 30 days) mug shots of all individuals who have been arrested (not convicted) for patronizing or soliciting for prostitution.  On the website, anyone with internet access can see an arrestee’s:

• Mug shot
• Name
• Age
• Sex (although all are biological men)
• Home address (the city block)
• Arrest location
• Arrest date
• Arrest statute
• Whether their car was impounded

Since 2010, the SSRC has been monitoring the website and collecting screen shots every 30 days to create a database with all the available information.  We have begun some preliminary mapping of this data.

This first map shows where the prostitution arrests are taking place. For the maps, the arrest dates are from 3/8/2010 to 3/9/2012. Not surprisingly, most arrests occur on the West and South Sides. While the vast majority of these arrests are for street-based prostitution, one of the more interesting (surprising?) findings is the extreme street-nature of the arrests. Instead of being clustered in neighborhoods, they appear to follow major streets in Chicago, often crossing several neighborhoods.  (The exception to this is the cluster around the Englewood and Auburn Gresham neighborhoods.)

Poverty in America

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 46.2 million Americans (15.1%) are living in poverty, the largest number since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures in 1959. The U.S. poverty rate is the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). More than 1 in 5 children under age 18 and 1 in 6 Americans is living under the federal poverty line.

As the number of available jobs shrinks and the number of low-paying or part-time jobs with no benefits increases, the number of people unemployed or under-employed is rising. Low-wage jobs do not cover basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and health care. Fueling this situation, health care costs are rising and crippling families. Currently, nearly 1 in 6 Americans has no health insurance (49.9 million), nearly 10% of whom (7.3 million) are children. Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate among seniors rose from 9% to 15.9% due to medical expenses. More than 45% of Americans are doubling-up, living with their parents or friends because they have incomes below the poverty level.

Rising inflation, falling job rates, unlivable wages, rising health care expenses and mounting debts are leading the middle- and lower- classes into poverty.

Where is poverty worst?
The South has been hit hardest by current economic conditions, with 18.8 million people living in poverty in 2010, 1.2 million more than in 2009. Next worst off was the West, with 10.9 million people living below the poverty line. The Northeast and the Midwest were doing relatively better, with 6.92 million and 9.49 million people, respectively, slipping or remaining under the poverty line. Twenty-two states had poverty rates greater than the national rate of 15.1% in 2010. Mississippi was the worst off, with almost one-quarter of its population (22.4%) living in poverty, followed by New Mexico, Kentucky, and Alabama where 1 in every 5 individuals is stricken by poverty. Among the 28 states that had poverty rates lower than the national rate, New Hampshire ranked the best (8.3%), followed by Alaska and Maryland (9.9%), Connecticut (10.1%), New Jersey (10.3%), and Hawaii (10.7%). Illinois wasn’t spared by the recession. It had 17.1 million (13.8%) individuals living below the federal poverty line — the 28th worst state in the nation.

The haves and the have-nots

Most Americans are unaware of how unequally wealth is distributed in this country. As of 2007, the top 1% of Americans had a net worth of 34.6% (more than $12 trillion) and held 49.7% of all the investment assets according to sociologist William Domhoff and the IRS. These wealth-holders take home almost one-quarter of the national income (24%). More than 1.3 million of them are men, 0.97 million are women; 21.3% are under 50 years of age; 50% are married.

The same data indicate that in 2007, California had the most residents with a net worth of at least $2 million, followed by New York, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas. Illinois ranked sixth. However, if you consider the concentration of wealth alongside the population of each state, Wyoming ranks first followed by Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, California, South Dakota, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.

Race & Ethnicity: Data Snapshots

By Lars Plougmann@Flickr.com

Following the release of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 Census, several demographers and research institutes are worth noting for the helpful graphs and maps they have created to highlight changes in the racial and ethnic landscape of America. These data snapshots, based on the 2010 U.S. Census and the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, offer a quick and easy overview of the country’s racial and ethnic make-up in terms of residential segregation, income segregation, population changes, and other demographic shifts over the past few decades.