Crime and violence are highly socially connected. As criminal justice practitioners continue to learn about the small percent of the population responsible for the majority of violence, they have to use data analysis tools to focus resources (prevention, intervention, and enforcement) on the small world of people at high risk for being involved in violence, either as offenders or victims. This webinar will examine how social network analysis (SNA) can be applied to criminal justice data to better understand the small world of violence.
The presenters will show how to first use National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) leads to get a picture of how violence incidents are connected through a common gun. But that is not the end. Next, practitioners can link incident data to the individuals involved in those crimes. By aggregating crime incident data with NIBIN, practitioners can get to a point of seeing the network of people associated with violence in a jurisdiction. The webinar will present analysis from seven contiguous jurisdictions in the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, this webinar will highlight the role prosecutors play in the use of NIBIN to solve violent crimes. A discussion about how prosecutors can use SNA and NIBIN to more efficiently address violence will be conducted.
Presenters:
Dan Carew is a deputy prosecuting attorney with the King County, Washington Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) in Seattle, Washington. He is currently assigned to the Crime Strategies Unit (CSU), which focuses on data-driven approaches to reducing firearm violence. CSU works closely with the county’s 40 different law enforcement agencies to collect and analyze data from “Shots Fired” incidents. This data informs KCPAO’s prosecution strategies and guides its prevention and intervention efforts. Mr. Carew has worked extensively with NIBIN and SNA and sees both as critical components of the county’s violence prevention efforts.
Karissa Taylor is a senior deputy prosecuting attorney with KCPAO. Karissa graduated from Covenant College from 1996 and the University of Washington Law School in 2001. She began with KCPAO in fall 2001, completing rotations in District Court, Juvenile, and Special Assault, and spending 12 years in Violent Crime. She is currently implementing a Bureau of Justice Assistance Police-Prosecutor Partnership Initiative grant. The grant partners the prosecutor’s office with eight law enforcement jurisdictions, public health, and federal partners to focus on firearms violence. Under the grant, Dr. Andrew Fox of Fresno State is using co-arrest data to build social networks of those most at risk of victimization. The remainder of the grant will be focused on implementing the data collection and analysis around firearm violence.
Andrew M. Fox is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology at California State University, Fresno. He received his PhD from Arizona State University in Criminology and Criminal Justice. His research interests include social network analysis, gangs, crime prevention, and communities. Dr. Fox is serving as the research partner on a number of federal initiatives, including Smart Policing, Smart Prosecution, and the Police-Prosecution Partnership Initiative. He was an embedded researcher with the Jackson County, Missouri Prosecutor’s Office and the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, actively involved in the evaluation, intelligence gathering, and planning and implementation of their focused deterrence model program. Additionally, Dr. Fox has worked with multiple police agencies to integrate SNA into law enforcement decisionmaking. Strategies include community-oriented policing, enforcement, and crime prevention. In 2014, his work led to the receipt of the Bronze Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement Research Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award. His work has been published in the Pan American Journal of Public Health, Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, and the American Sociological Review.