Posted on Wed 18 December 2013

Changes in homicide rates

More examples of using the mxmortalitydb package! Changes and trends in homicide rates in the most violent metro areas or big municipios. There was a big increase in violence in Nuevo Laredo. For comparison the homicide rate in Chicago (metro area) was 8.2.

library(mxmortalitydb)
library(stringr)
library(plyr)
library(ggplot2)
library(grid)  ## needed for arrow
plotMetro <- function(metro.name, metro.areas) {
    ## Plot the homicide counts in a metro area or municipio metro.name - name of
    ## the metro area to plot metro.areas - data frame containing a list of metro
    ## areas in the same format as the metro.area dataframe from mxmortalitydb

    ## data.frame metro.areas contains the 2010 CONAPO metro areas
    df <- merge(injury.intent, metro.areas, by.x = c("state_reg", "mun_reg"), 
        by.y = c("state_code", "mun_code"))
    ## Yearly homicides in Mexico City, by state of registration
    df2 <- ddply(subset(df, metro_area == metro.name & intent.imputed == "Homicide"), 
        .(year_reg), summarise, count = length(state_reg))

    ggplot(df2, aes(year_reg, count)) + geom_line() + labs(title = str_c("Homicides (plus deaths of unknown intent classified as homicide) in\n", 
        metro.name)) + ylim(0, max(df2$count)) + ylab("homicide count") + xlab("year of registration") + 
        theme_bw()
}

plotChanges <- function(df, metro.areas, country.rate, years) {
    ## Plot of rates and trends df - injury.intent dataframr metro.areas - data
    ## frame containing a list of metro areas in the same format as the
    ## metro.area dataframe from mxmortalitydb country.rate - rate to show as a
    ## gray dotted line years - start and end year to compare changes

    ## Where the municipio where the death occurred is unknown use the municipio
    ## where it was registered as place of occurrance  df[df$mun_occur_death == 999, ]$mun_occur_death <- df[df$mun_occur_death == 
        999, ]$mun_reg

    ## Counts of homicide by state and municipio
    df <- ddply(subset(df, year_reg %in% years & intent.imputed == "Homicide"), 
        .(state_occur_death, mun_occur_death, year_reg), summarise, count = length(state_reg))
    ## Merge the counts with our fake metro areas
    df <- merge(df, metro.areas, by.x = c("state_occur_death", "mun_occur_death"), 
        by.y = c("state_code", "mun_code"))
    ## Now get the counts by metro area (which may contain more than one
    ## municipio)
    df <- ddply(df, .(metro_area, year_reg), summarise, count = sum(count), 
        population = sum(mun_population_2010), rate = count/population * 10^5)
    ## We are only interesed if the metro area at some time had a homicide rate
    ## of at least 15
    df <- subset(df, metro_area %in% subset(df, rate > 15)$metro_area)
    ## Make sure the dataframe is ordered by metro and year
    df <- df[order(df$metro_area, df$year_reg), ]
    ## Order the chart by homicide rate in 2012
    df$metro_area <- reorder(df$metro_area, df$rate, function(x) x[[2]])
    ## Data frame for the arrow structure
    arrows <- ddply(df, .(metro_area), summarise, start = rate[1], end = rate[2], 
        metro_area = metro_area[1], change = ifelse(rate[1] >= rate[2], "decrease", 
            "increase"))

    ggplot(df, aes(rate, metro_area, group = as.factor(year_reg), color = as.factor(year_reg))) + 
        geom_point(aes(size = log(count))) + labs(title = "Homicide (plus deaths of unknown intent classified as homicide) rates and trends") + 
        scale_size("number\nof\nhomicides", breaks = c(log(50), log(500), log(3000)), 
            labels = c(50, 500, 3000)) + geom_segment(data = arrows, aes(x = start, 
        y = metro_area, xend = end, yend = metro_area, group = change, color = change), 
        arrow = arrow(length = unit(0.3, "cm")), alpha = 0.8) + scale_color_manual("year\nand\ntrend", 
        values = c("gray", "black", "blue", "red")) + ylab("metro area or municipio") + 
        xlab("homicide rate") + # scale_x_log10()+
    geom_vline(xintercept = country.rate, linetype = 2, color = "#666666") + 
        annotate("text", y = "Tapachula", x = 25, label = "country\naverage\n2012", 
            hjust = -0.1, size = 4, color = "#666666") + theme_bw()
}
## Let's treat the big municipalities which are not part of a metro area as
## if they were one rename big.municipios to merge with metro.areas
big.municipios2 <- big.municipios
names(big.municipios2) <- c("state_code", "mun_code", "mun_population_2010", 
    "metro_area")
metro.areas.fake <- rbind.fill(metro.areas, big.municipios2)
Changes from 2011 to 2012 and from the year before the drug war was declared to 2012:
plotChanges(injury.intent, metro.areas.fake, 24.5, c(2011, 2012))
plotChanges(injury.intent, metro.areas.fake, 24.5, c(2006, 2012))
Interesting that Tijuana had about the same homicide rate in 2012 as in 2006. The rest of the violent metro areas/large municipios which saw decreases are in Michoacán. Sadly, it doesn’t look like pattern will hold in 2013 (according to crimenmexico Michoacán is experiencing a surge of violence and is at a maximum)
Do note that the charts were made using the 2010 population according to the CONAPO that comes with mxmortalitydb, so homicides in 2012 were overestimated by a little bit and underestimated by a little bit in 2006. Also rather than using the raw homicide numbers I adjusted them by classifying deaths of unknown intent.
ll <- list("Acapulco", "Nuevo Laredo", "La Laguna", "Chihuahua", "Tecomán", 
    "Juárez", "Culiacán", "Victoria", "Hidalgo del Parral", "Zihuatanejo de Azueta", 
    "El Mante", "Ciudad Valles", "Ciudad Valles", "Durango", "Cuernavaca", "Zacatecas-Guadalupe", 
    "Monterrey", "Piedras Negras", "Mazatlán", "Veracruz", "Tijuana", "Guadalajara", 
    "Tepic", "Coatzacoalcos")
names(ll) <- ll  # make lapply print the names of the metro areas
lapply(ll, plotMetro, metro.areas.fake)
## $Acapulco
## 
## $`Nuevo Laredo`
## 
## $`La Laguna`
## ## $Chihuahua
## 
## $Tecomán
## 
## $Juárez
## 
## $Culiacán
## 
## $Victoria
## 
## $`Hidalgo del Parral`
## 
## $`Zihuatanejo de Azueta`
## 
## $`El Mante`
## 
## $`Ciudad Valles`
## 
## $Durango
## 
## $Cuernavaca
## ## $`Zacatecas-Guadalupe`
## 
## $Monterrey

## 
## $`Piedras Negras`
## 
## $Mazatlán
## 
## $Veracruz
## 
## $Tijuana
## 
## $Guadalajara
## 
## $Tepic
## 
## $Coatzacoalcos
Check out the source code as an R markdown file.



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