This project explores the prevalence of sexual violence by mapping when and where three types of sexual crime occurred in 2019 over a 3D visualization of Chicago neighborhoods. The heightfield, milled from a block of acrylic, is divided into 18 community areas bound on the northwest by Humboldt Park, the northeast by the Near North Side, the southeast by Douglas, and the southwest by Archer Heights. The underlying LED display cycles through a year of crime data, showing what type of sexual crime occurred and where. Red indicates criminal sexual assault, blue indicates sex offenses, and yellow indicates stalking, as defined by Illinois Uniform Crime Reporting codes. Limitations: Source data only represent reported crimes. Using a number of reported crimes as a proxy for a number of crimes that occurred is convenient for a project of this scope, but does not take into account unreported incidents. This limitation is particularly concerning given that we know many incidents of sexual violence are never reported (nationally, about 75% of sexual assaults go unreported). Further, the use of crime data is inherently limiting given the criminal justice system's narrow understanding of sexual violence.

“One of my goals with this project was to consider how we might use large data sets to provoke a self-reflective or emotional experience rather than convey neutral facts.

Adjusting the rate at which we move through the data may alter the emotional impact on the viewer. At the current rate, it takes about 40 minutes to cycle through all the 2019 data – a period that may feel like an eternity to a viewer, but is nothing compared to the lasting effects of sexual violence on the survivor. A rapid rate might emphasize the sheer number of these types of crimes, while a slower rate might give the viewer time to contemplate what the visualization represents.”

— McKinley Sherrod