Justice or Oversight? A Study of Gender-Motivated Violence and Domestic Abuse Data
This project includes a research paper published in the Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Law Review titled "Reassessing the 14th Amendment: Supreme Court Decisions on Gender-Motivated Violence," along with a creative data visualization project focused on Intimate Partner Violence and Domestic Violence data in New York City.
The dataset on intimate partner violence in New York City community board districts, provided by the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, offers an empirical view into the prevalence of domestic and intimate partner violence. It contains information on various categories of domestic and family-related violence incidents reported by the New York City Police Department. Specifically,
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FAM_DIR denotes the total number of domestic violence incidents that involved family members;
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FAM_Fel_Assault denotes the instances of felony assaults involving family members;
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DV_Fel_Assault denotes felony assaults related to domestic violence, regardless of family connection;
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FAM_Rape denotes the number of felony rape incidents involving family members;
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DV_Rape denotes felony rape cases associated with domestic violence.
​Each of these labels represents a specific subset of violent incidents, helping to provide a detailed breakdown of intimate partner and family violence data in New York City for that year.
Reported Incidents involved Intimate Partner Violence in New York City, 2016–2019
This boxplot visualizes reported incidents of intimate partner violence in New York City from 2016 to 2019 across all five boroughs. Bronx and Brooklyn show higher incident counts across categories, while Staten Island consistently reports the fewest. The data highlights both temporal and geographic patterns, offering insights into the prevalence and distribution of intimate partner violence within NYC.
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By showing the actual distribution of intimate partner violence incidents across various districts, the dataset underscores the need for robust and consistent protections that transcend state and local boundaries—an ideal that aligns with the federal objectives of the 14th Amendment and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). However, the judicial limitations on federal intervention, as discussed in the paper, suggest that areas like New York City must rely on local agencies and policies to address gender-motivated violence comprehensively. Thus, this dataset provides valuable statistics and contextualizes the real-world impact of limited federal protections, reinforcing the paper’s argument for a more expansive and uniformly applied interpretation of the 14th Amendment to support victims across all jurisdictions.
Reported Incidents involved Intimate Partner Violence in New York City, 2018 Only
The heatmap reveals that intimate partner violence is significantly more concentrated in the Bronx and Brooklyn, particularly in categories involving felony assaults and domestic violence-related cases. This suggests that these boroughs face heightened challenges related to intimate partner violence, likely requiring more robust intervention and support services. Staten Island, by contrast, shows consistently lower incident counts, which may reflect differing social dynamics or resource allocation. The variation across boroughs highlights a disparity in the geographic distribution of intimate partner violence, emphasizing the need for tailored, location-specific strategies to address these issues effectively.
Reported Incidents involved Intimate Partner Violence in Brooklyn, New York City, 2016-2019
The bubble plot reveals a stark concentration of intimate partner violence incidents in Brooklyn within the category representing the total number of domestic violence incidents involving family members, indicating that family-directed incidents vastly outnumber other types of reported cases. This pattern suggests that interventions in Brooklyn should focus heavily on family-related violence, where the need is most acute. In contrast, categories such as instances of felony assaults involving family members, felony assaults related to domestic violence regardless of family connection, felony rape incidents involving family members, and felony rape cases associated with domestic violence show consistently lower frequencies, highlighting a disparity in incident types. The marked dominance of family-directed cases points to potential underlying social or systemic factors driving these reports, underscoring the importance of tailored, category-specific approaches to effectively address intimate partner violence in Brooklyn.
The violin plot highlights that Brooklyn and the Bronx consistently experience higher levels of felony assaults involving domestic violence from 2016 to 2019, suggesting persistent challenges in these boroughs. In contrast, Manhattan, Queens, and especially Staten Island show lower counts, with Staten Island reporting the fewest cases throughout the period. The wider spread of the violins in Brooklyn reflects greater variability in incident rates, possibly indicating fluctuations in reporting or enforcement. This distribution underscores the need for targeted interventions in Brooklyn and the Bronx, where domestic violence-related felony assaults are most concentrated.
Reported Felony Assaults with Domestic Violence in New York City, 2016-2019
Note: This analysis was conducted using R, with data sourced from Data.gov (code available on GitHub).