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To cite this article: Terry Allen & Glen Buckner (1992) Expanding the Role of the Bar Chart in Representing Crime
Data, CHANCE, 5:3-4, 54-59
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Graphics can be effective. Correctly combining bar charts with
maps reveals crime rate patterns.
Crime Data
Do more murders happen in Utah technical, artistic, and psychologi- stand well-executed graphics.
on Saturday? What time of day are cal factors, even the most nonquan- Graphical summaries of crime
c r i m e s most likely to h a p p e n ? titative person can easily under- data are used parsimoniously in
Many states summarize their crime
statistics each year. Unfortunately,
these summaries are often simply
unexciting volumes of difficult-to-
read computer printouts. Trends in
or clues about overall crime pat
terns are buried in these volumes
of numbers.
T h i s is u n f o r t u n a t e b e c a u s e
graphical methods have emerged
in the last 15 years as one of the
most powerful tools for analyzing
data and for making that analysis
u n d e r s t a n d a b l e . The i n c r e a s e d
power and availability of personal
computers coupled with new and
better graphical software means
that visually comprehensible sta
tistical summaries can be easily
produced. A data graphic aids the
researcher in data analysis a n d
makes the results accessible to the
lay p e r s o n . W h e r e a s effective Figure 1. Standard bar chart showing 10-year summary of the percent of as
graphics depend on a variety of saults on law enforcement officers by time of day.
TT
10 years, it illustrates another dif
ficulty of bar charts. W i t h bar
charts that depict time-dependent
1981 19B2 19B3 19B* 1985 1BI 19B7 19BB 19BB 1990 data, the linear nature of the chart
YEAR may mask significant information.
SrtADED AREA INDICATES PERCENT CLEARED
For example, the largest frequen
cies for assaults on law enforce
Figure 3. Plot symbol bar chart showing the number of murders and the per ment officers are from 10:00 P.M. to
cent solved by the police for each year. midnight and from midnight to
2:00 A.M., which are in direct time
sequence during the night but ap
pear at opposite ends of the bar
many states. Such graphics are al- leading that they either leave false chart in Fig. 1. The very structure
m o s t e x c l u s i v e l y bar a n d pie impressions or fail to clearly show of the chart hides the sequential
charts. Unfortunately, some of the information. nature of the data. Figure 2 repre
these charts are so visually mis- Our purpose here is to encour sents one way to put these two
YEAH
of the pie chart. The pie itself has
two divisions that show the pro
Figure 4. Plot symbol bar chart showing the crime rate and the percent solved portion of murders solved and un
by the police for each year. solved for that year. Pie charts al
low us to see relative areas if there
are not too many divisions. With
only two slices in the pie, it be
Murders by Day of the Week comes obvious that most Utah mur
Utah 1978-1990
Number = 664 ders are solved each year (shaded
area).
Figure 4 is similar except that the
plot symbol is a small bar chart in
dicating the percent of each major
c r i m e (except m u r d e r ) that is
solved each year. The reference
line across the m i d d l e of each
small chart is at 50%. The vertical
axis of this graphic represents the
" c r i m e r a t e " (major crimes per
1,000 population). The 50% mark
on each small bar chart is aligned
with the vertical axis at the overall
crime rate for that year. Figure 4,
exhibiting both trends over time
and within a particular year, pre
sents more detail on the percent of
crimes solved. T w o interesting
points emerge from this graph.
First, only rape and aggravated as
sault (other than murder) have at
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday least 50% clearance rates for all
years. Second, the crime rate de
Figure 5. Standard bar chart showing the number of murders by day of the creased from 1981 to 1984, then in
week. creased until 1987 when it leveled
out. A possible causal factor is the
closing of a major Utah steel factory
tallest bars together and solve this gether by placing the bar chart on in 1984, which resulted in the loss
visual problem. It allows all se- a circular base and using concen- of several thousand jobs. The con
quential time periods to appear to- trie circles as scale axes. It looks nection to the increase in the crime
Figure 6. Bar chart with error bars showing the proportion of murders by day The graph in Fig. 7, suggested by
of the week. Cleveland, eliminates the visual
problem of Fig. 6, in which the
bars t e n d to obscure the lower
end of the confidence intervals,
Murders by Day of the Week by replacing the bars with dots.
Utah 1978-1990
Number = 664 This allows the user to focus on
the confidence intervals.
Friday -
RATE Υ77Λ S5 TO 3 *
^^M 45 OR MORE
Figure 8. Area chart shaded according to crime-rate Figure 10. Map with framed rectangles indicating ob
grouping. served crime rates.
WEBER COUNTY.
Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 17:16 18 December 2014
picture for each county, all of the some counties may hide others [Special thanks to Steve Ander
map charts in Figs. 8 through 10 that are lower and lie behind. son, Uniform Crime Reporting
give the false impression that the Manager, Utah Department of Pub
crime rate is uniform throughout lic Safety, for his valuable assis
the county. This is not the case; Conclusion tance.]
crimes occur where there are peo
ple. Figure 11 is a surface map U s i n g bar c h a r t s to r e p r e s e n t Additional Reading
where the crime rate for the major crime data is growing in popular Buckner, G. and Allen, T. (1988), "Us
cities in Utah is proportional to ity b e c a u s e of t h e e a s e w i t h ing SAS/GRAPH Software to Create
the h e i g h t of the b u m p s . This w h i c h users can interpret the in Graphics for Data Analysis," Pro
map gives very different informa formation. They pack a lot of data ceedings: SAS Users Group Interna
tional, 13, 1087-1092.
t i o n a b o u t t h e d i s t r i b u t i o n of into a few simple forms and catch
crime throughout the state than the r e a d e r ' s eye. Certainly bar Cleveland, W.S. (1984), "Graphical
does a m a p w h i c h focuses on charts are preferable to computer Methods for Data Presentation: Full
county boundaries. printouts, w h i c h are indecipher Scale Breaks, Dot Charts, and Mul-
Figure 12 is the ultimate bar able to most readers. tibased Logging," The American
Statistician, 38, 270-280.
chart representation of counties. But bar graphs should be de
Each c o u n t y is a t h r e e - d i m e n signed to ensure that they accu Cleveland, W.S. and McGill, R. (1984),
s i o n a l bar; h o w e v e r , b a r s are rately represent the data. Like all "Graphical Perception: Theory, Ex
r a i s e d for only t h o s e c o u n t i e s g r a p h i c s , t h e c r e a t i o n of bar perimentation, and Application to
with high crime rates to give a graphs cannot be reduced to a me the Development of Graphical
Methods," Journal of the American
visual feel for the high-crime ar chanical procedure, involving as Statistical Association, 79, 5 3 1 -
eas. As visually appealing as this it does artistic and psychological 554.
graph is, it contains even less in elements as well as elements of
formation than the flat chart in quantification. A little thought Schmid, CF. and Schmid, S.E. (1979),
Fig. 8. In addition to the weak and creativity, however, can lead Handbook of Graphic Presentation,
New York: John Wiley and Sons.
nesses of Fig. 8, its shortcomings to bar graphs which are visually
are the difficulty in getting an ac interesting, packed with informa Tufte, E. R. (1983), The Visual Display
curate measure of the height of tion, and accurate in their repre of Quantitative Information, Chesh
the bars, and the high bars for sentation. ire, CT: Graphics Press.