Scientists Tracking Murder Like a Disease

[Gahars]

Murder. It's a universally recognized taboo across the globe, and most would agree that as far as awful crimes go, it's hard to beat. Hell, murder even has a whole commandment dedicated to it.

So, obviously, stopping it is something of a priority. While you can try your best to stop murderers from killing again, there's only so much you can do.

To better tackle this problem, researchers are trying something new - and it's a real killer.

...When scientists study the outbreak of an infectious disease like AIDS or the flu, they don't ask what it is about specific individuals that made them sick. They look for broader patterns, knowing that illness in any individual stems from a process of contagion.

Along with colleagues Jesenia M. Pizarro, Sue C. Grady and Christopher Melde, Zeoli asked whether homicide might follow the same principles of contagion.

"We looked at homicide as an infectious disease," Zeoli said in an interview. "To spread, an infectious disease needs three things: a source of the infection; a mode of transmission; and we need a susceptible population."

The researchers studied every homicide that occurred in the city of Newark, N.J., over a period of a quarter century, from January 1982 to September 2007. In all, Newark had seen 2,366 murders in that period, a rate of homicide some three times as high as that of the general U.S. population.

The researchers tracked down the time and location of every single murder. They plugged the data into a software program that has previously been used to track infectious diseases: When you put in the geographical location and the time of infection of each victim of the infectious disease, the program creates a model that shows how the epidemic is spreading — and where it might go next.

NPR

Oh boy, New Jersey made the news. Yay.

In all seriousness, this method has proven to be extremely beneficial. Not only can it inform the police where murders have occurred (they're pretty well aware of that, thank you very much), but it also allows them to make informed predictions on where future murders will be committed. When it comes to divvying up resources, that information could be quite invaluable.

Focusing on these predicted hotbeds of homicide may also prove to be conducive for further studies. By focusing on these areas, scientists may be able to produce more effective, informative research on the underlying causes and factors driving the crime.

Now, this is normally where I'd end with a pun tied to the subject of the article, but let's be honest here, I'd just be digging through the Cryptkeeper's catalogue. So, let's not get choked up on the details here and just call it a day. Agreed?

 

[FAST6191]

Now I am all for applied stats but is this truly a new thing? Granted I have not looked at the source in depth (usually a bad oversight when making these kinds of replies) and it might have increased the range (time and distance) or indeed used a new algorithm (this seems somewhat more likely).

 

[Gahars]

Now I am all for applied stats but is this truly a new thing? Granted I have not looked at the source in depth (usually a bad oversight when making these kinds of replies) and it might have increased the range (time and distance) or indeed used a new algorithm (this seems somewhat more likely).

The methods themselves aren't new, but the fact that they're now being applied to study homicides is.

 

[MegaBassBX]

Murder. It's a universally recognized taboo across the globe, and most would agree that as far as awful crimes go, it's hard to beat. Hell, murder even has a whole commandment dedicated to it.

So, obviously, stopping it is something of a priority. While you can try your best to stop murderers from killing again, there's only so much you can do.

To better tackle this problem, researchers are trying something new - and it's a real killer.

NPR

Oh boy, New Jersey made the news. Yay.

In all seriousness, this method has proven to be extremely beneficial. Not only can it inform the police where murders have occurred (they're pretty well aware of that, thank you very much), but it also allows them to make informed predictions on where future murders will be committed. When it comes to divvying up resources, that information could be quite invaluable.

Focusing on these predicted hotbeds of homicide may also prove to be conducive for further studies. By focusing on these areas, scientists may be able to produce more effective, informative research on the underlying causes and factors driving the crime.

Now, this is normally where I'd end with a pun tied to the subject of the article, but let's be honest here, I'd just be digging through the Cryptkeeper's catalogue. So, let's not get choked up on the details here and just call it a day. Agreed?

I guess they should install a Psycho Pass

 

[shakirmoledina]

Minority Report