Notes from the Field: A Loyola Theater Production

Sociology often makes for poignant art.  Some examples include Oscar winners Crash and Parasite, as well as local artist Tonika Johnson's Folded Map which debuted at Loyola's WTC gallery. 

Announcing a sociological Loyola Theater production:  Notes from the Field.

And Sunday is a post-show discussion:

The production's Dramaturgy Resource provides more resources related to the performance, including this graphic which shows the way that companies profit off mass incarceration:

2.06 The “Self” and Agents of Socialization

 Action Item for our Next Lesson:

Read chapter 1 from Carolyn Deck's book, Mindset.

Today's Lesson: The Self and Agents of Socialization

• What is the sociological concept of "the self"?
• What are some theories about how do we develop it?  
• What are "agents of socialization"?

To begin today's lesson, open the Twenty Statements Test and fill in 20 responses to the question, "Who am I?" Do this quickly, without thinking too much about it.  Simply complete the the statement with the first 20 answers that come to mind.  Here is the Google Form for the lesson.

Try to fill in all 20 statements about yourself.   Work quickly and individually.

After you have answered 20 statements about yourself, proceed:

The "self"

The Twenty Statements Test is a survey that has been used in various studies for over 50 years. (Note: this lesson is based on Rusty Schnellinger's lesson) The test is a qualitative measurement of how people think about themselves, or who they are as a person.   This conscious understanding of who we are as individuals is an example of what sociologists call a "self."  Similar to metacognition and how people think about thinking, a "self" is how individuals consciously think about who they are as an individual.  

Coding your responses.
When conducting qualitative data analysis, sometimes sociologists will code the responses to make sense of the data.  Code your responses to the Twenty Statements Test:

A mode responses: Physical characteristics.   

Ex. I am blonde, I am short, I am strong.

B mode responses: Socially defined statuses that associate you relative to a group.   

Ex. I am a student, I am Catholic, I am a quarterback, I am a daughter, I am a store clerk.

C mode responses:  Personal traits, styles of behavior or emotional states.  

Ex. I am a happy person, I am competitive, I am loud. I am tired.

D mode responses: General, more abstract or existential responses.   

Ex. I am me, I am part of the universe, I am human, I am alive.

After you code your responses, answer the following questions on your notes page:

1.  Individually:  Which type of response did you have the most of?  How many? Is that surprising or does that seem right to you?

Culture And your Sense of Self

2. Without reading any further, use your sociological imagination to hypothesize how these responses might have changed over time.  If you did this test in a different time, say 70 years ago, or in a different place, how might the different culture shape your responses to these?   

After you hypothesize about the question above, continue reading:

Peter Kaufman explains in the book A Sociology Experiment (2019) that researchers did find a change over time in the test responses and it concerned them:

In summary, this is one example that culture shapes how we think about what is important and what we value; culture may influence us to think about our "self" in certain ways.  

Erving Goffman's Dramaturgy

3.  Choose one of your responses that is a mode B response.  

a. Which one did you choose? 

b.  How do you express yourself to fit into this response?  In other words, how do you dress, talk and act in order to be like _______ (B mode response)?  What are the things that you do in order to be that role?

Discussion:  What were some examples for your answer to number two? For number two, this is exemplifying a sociological theory called Dramaturgy by Erving Goffman. Goffman wrote The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life which theorized that people present themselves to the world based on their ideas about their "self". They create an image of how they want to be perceived. It is like being in a play, or a drama - when you go on stage you are dressed up to play your role, you have your lines and your costume etc... Goffman's theory in the form of an extended metaphor is known as dramaturgy. In Goffman's theory, every time we go into a social situation we are presenting ourselves to the world - playing a role such as sister, friend, teammate, student, girlfriend, coworker, etc... In all of these roles we talk a certain way, act a certain way and even dress a certain way.

One example might be if you answered, I am a student.  You may feel that you have your own style but I bet that you can find similarities to other students here at Loyola.  And you have learned to sit in the desk, raise your hand, show up to class, answer questions and do all the things that students do.

Agents of socialization

4.  Regarding your answer to number 3b above, what are some of the places that you have learned to talk/dress/act like this?  For example if you wrote I am a student. Where did you learn how to be a student? Where did you learn all the behaviors/habits/actions that a student does?

Discussion: Examples of where?

All the places where we learn how to act out this role are examples of what sociologists call agents of socialization, or, the most important groups that shape an individual's sense of self. (especially: family, school, peers/friends, media).  For example, if you answered I am a student, I bet learning that role happened even before you went to school.  You may have watched kids shows or cartoons about kids going off to school and what they do there.  Kids read books about the first day of school and what students do all day.  Parents tell stories about when they went to school.  And if you have older siblings, cousins or neighbors, you learn by watching and talking to them about their school experiences. Then, teachers themselves tell you what they expect from you.  A great deal of elementary school is learning how to do school.  Classmates also socialize us by sharing their habits preferences for studying and school supplies etc...  In other words, you didn't just show up and decide what kind of student you wanted to be, you were socialized by different agents throughout your life. 

Charles Horton Cooley's Looking Glass Self

5a.  Also thinking about your answer to 3b, can you think of a time when one of the ways you expressed yourself was received positively by another person or group? Who was it? How did they react? What did they say?

For example, if I answered I am a student and one of the ways I express that is by participating in class and commenting on readings, I can specifically recall a few different teachers of mine telling me that it was a pleasure having me in class to discuss the readings and challenge them on somethings while helping to generate class discussion.  

5b.  Can you think of a time when one of ways you expressed yourself was received negatively by another person or group? Who was it? How did they react? What did they say?

These are examples of Charles Horton Cooley’s theory called the “Looking Glass”.  By “Looking Glass” he is referring to a mirror.  His theory is that we learn to act a certain way because of our interactions with others and how they react to us.  Their reaction to us is like looking into a mirror that reflects back on us.  We learn from others' reactions to us how we are perceived in the world and this shapes our sense of self.

In Sum

We are influenced from the moment we are born (even before) by important groups around us including culture which we are born into.  The process by which we are shape by these social groups is called socialization.  This process not only helps us to survive but it also develops a self or our conscious way of thinking about who we are as an individual.  These most important groups that socialize us are called agents of socialization.

Please don't forget to read chapter 1 from Carolyn Deck's book, Mindset for our next lesson.

Quantitative Assessment Unit 1

Today's lesson is ASYNCHRONOUS - we will NOT meet in person.  Instead please complete the assessment for the first unit.  

• The assessment will be posted to Sakai under the Tests/quizzes tab at the start of today's class.
• You must take this assessment before the beginning of our next class.
• Be mindful of the time - once you begin, you have 60 minutes to finish.  There are readings and that may take you a little bit of time. You are NOT allowed to skip questions - you must answer them in advance.
• Please do not share any answers, but you may use your notes to answer the questions.
• Don't be too anxious - you can always submit a qualitative assessment.  That assessment will be posted/assigned at our next class.

 When finished with the assessment, please answer this Post-assessment evaluation.

Sociological Super Bowl 2025

 Ending [the fight against] Racism; The NFL's Participatory Obedience 2025

NPR's Code Switch reported on the NFL's decision to end their END RACISM campaign in 2025, the same year that President Trump is attending the game and also ending all DEI initiatives in the government.  This concerns scholars who study democracy;

Some democracy advocates worry that too many of our civic institutions are softening their postures toward Trump to avoid getting on his bad side, pointing to what the historian Timothy Snyder calls "anticipatory obedience:"

"Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do."

Advocate explains,

The NFL introduced its “Inspire Change” platform in 2018, with end-zone slogans such as “End Racism,” “It Takes All of Us,” “Stop Hate,” “Choose Love,” and “Vote” becoming part of the league’s broader diversity and inclusion messaging in 2020, the Athletic reports. These changes were implemented in response to nationwide BLM protests following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The issue of racial injustice had been a talking point in the NFL since 2016, when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick  (For more on Colin Kaepernick see my 2017 post about it) began kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racism, sparking widespread debates.

And the END RACISM end zone message has been in the end zone since 2021 as an anti-racism response to the murder of George Floyd.

But, Trump has a long history of racism (see my post about his attacks on DEI) that makes his comments about NFL players all the more suspect.  Newsweek documented all of Trump's NFL comments during his first term here, including saying that "NFL players who kneel should be fired" (2017), "Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!" (2017) and saying that these players "shouldn't be allowed in our country" (2018).

All of this calls into question the decisions of Trump to be the first President ever to attend a Super Bowl and the NFL's decision to end the END RACISM campaign.  Scholars who study authoritarianism call decisions like this anticipatory obedience.  Taking actions in an attempt to appease a leader is one way that democracies can fall into autocracy.  Princeton Sociologist Kim Scheppele explains this in her forthcoming book called Destroying Democracy by Law (more in my post about that here).
 

Kendrick Lamar's 2025 Halftime Performance, A Conflict Paradigm Lens

Kendrick Lamar's performance showed that he was aware of the gravity of the moment in both Trump attending and the President's past history with the NFL and racism as well as the history of participatory obedience.  Without a doubt, Lamar's performance was a commentary on racial justice in America through a lens of Marx's Conflict Paradigm.  Lamar brought numerous inequalities and injustices to light throughout his performance.

Double Consciousness

As the show begins, Lamar launches into Squabble Up, a song BET explains, 

...that speaks to the tension and resistance found in everyday Black life, Lamar immediately set the tone for the night.  

That tone was

...confronting uncomfortable truths about race, power, and identity in America. His lyrics often serve as a mirror, forcing listeners to see the country for what it is—not the sanitized, revisionist version often presented in history books, but the raw, unfiltered reality of Black life in America.... At a time when diversity programs are being dismantled and affirmative action is being gutted, Lamar stood as proof that Black excellence does not require permission.
At a time when voter suppression is being enacted in states with large Black populations, Lamar’s performance was a call to action, reminding us that our voices—whether in music, sports, or the ballot box—cannot and will not be silenced....Lamar’s halftime show was a direct response to the times we live in. It was a performance rooted in history, shaped by struggle, and fueled by the unrelenting spirit of Black America.
For years, America has tried to erase us—from slavery to segregation, from redlining to mass incarceration, from voter suppression to attempts to erase Black history from the classroom.  But history has shown, time and time again, that we are unerasable.  You can cancel every program. You can roll back every policy. You can attempt to silence every voice. But you cannot erase us.  Black people are America. Not just a part of it—not just contributors—but the very essence of what makes this country what it is.

And that last important point - that Black people are America despite the attempts to erase them from the culture exemplifies what W.E.B. Dubois called "Double Consciousness," or being forced to see yourself through two lenses - as a person who is both American and Black.

Beyond-say

During the first Trump administration, Beyonce performed at the Superbowl and faced backlash because her performance was too focused on social justice, too critical of American status quo; it was too black.  The Journal of Black Studies published an essay about the criticism of the performance (see below) and about how Black artists are often pressured to sanitize their performances and personas for an America that refuses to come to terms with racism.  In order to maintain their pop culture success, these artists are forced to live with Dubois' double consciousness as inhabiting an identity that is both a victim of racism and a neutral performer in the society that perpetuates the racism. In many ways Lamar's performance was attacking that that criticism.

Uncle Sam; A Structural Functional Symbol

Though the overall theme of the performance was addressing power and inequality through a lens of Conflict Paradigm, Lamar also brought attention to the inequality by critiquing, through structural functional analysis, the dysfunctional ways that society has broken apart - racially and politically.  The performance included Uncle Sam(uel Jackson) explained by Screen Rant here. Uncle Sam represents America - or at least the structures within it that seek to control and profit off minority artists like Lamar. It's the NFL that bows to Trump by eliminating their call to End Racism; it's the media like Fox that seeks to sanitize performances like this halftime show; it's the law that is used to silence artists like Drake's lawsuit attempts to.  Lamar attacks these structures so ingeniously by infiltrating them and being the performer that the structures gave the stage to. 

As Khal Davenport wrote in The Ringer,

“The revolution ’bout to be televised,” (a powerful reference to Gill Scott-Heron's song and message) Kendrick said before getting into GNX’s “squabble up,” adding, “You picked the right time but the wrong guy.” Later, Jackson as “Uncle Sam” scolded him, calling the performance “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto” and inquiring about whether Kendrick “really knew how to play the game” before imploring him to “tighten up!” The exchange echoed the hostility that Kendrick and so many other Black artists have experienced in the music industry and in this country more broadly. Lamar then transitioned into “Humble,” the lead single from his triple-platinum-selling, Pulitzer Prize–winning Damn. 

Then, it happened: As Uncle Sam started to tell Lamar that he was “almost there” and not to mess things up, the opening notes of “Not Like Us” started to play, and Kendrick dropped the following bars before giving the crowd the release that was included with the purchase of their Super Bowl ticket: “It’s a cultural divide, I’ma get it on the floor / 40 acres and a mule, this is bigger than the music / They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence.” The lines call back to the third verse of “Not Like Us,” when Kendrick proffers a lesson about Atlanta’s history as a “Black Mecca” and the broader system that exploits Black culture.

Red Lining

Lamar subtly recreates redlining as his dancers in white are surrounded by an invisible wall tinted red by lights and red dancers around it. 

David Dennis Jr.'s article, The Subversive Genius of Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Performance explains,

He was defiant, proud, vindictive, playful and celebratory. He was pro-Black and subversive, trolling and joyful, and through all the expectations and fighting and nastiness, he was ultimately victorious. Lamar was aspirational, inviting us along with him.

Lamar is always pushing up against what it means to be Black and American. Which is why the very first thing we saw in his halftime performance was actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam narrating the showcase as well as a voice in Lamar’s head, telling him to play it safe and humble himself for America.

When Lamar opened the show with his homies hopping out of his Buick GNX, a metaphor for his neighborhood and homies invading Americana, he’s admonished by Uncle Sam to humble himself. And when Lamar and his dancers formed a human American flag on the field during his smash hit “Humble,” it was clear there was going to be a larger statement about the country when it needs a mirror the most.

Lamar wanted to deliver a message and a series of messages aimed directly at Black folks who are yearning for a place to rest our hearts. It’s what he has done so brilliantly in the midst of his feud with Drake. Part of Lamar’s attack on his Canadian nemesis has been positioning Drake as an extension of an establishment whose goal is to tear down Black folks. Yes, Drake is a colonizer according to Lamar, but it’s not just about that. It’s about getting rid of all colonizers. So when Lamar dropped his most powerful easter egg of the performance — Serena Williams — it was a wink to a particularly Black audience.

Williams has been the target of Drake and America at multiple times in her career. She’s been unfairly targeted for daring to be great, or, in Drake’s case, disinterested in a relationship. During the performance of “Not Like Us,” Williams danced on the field — a middle finger to Drake and timely reminder that Lamar defended her, and the culture, on the song. But if you recall, back in the 2012 Olympics, Williams celebrated her Gold medal by c-walking on the court. The move, an homage to her Compton roots and something Black folks had been doing for ages, became another opening for attack as far too many people accused her of being “ghetto” and too cocky for daring to shout out her hometown and rejoice in victory. Lamar gave Williams space to reclaim that dance as he was rapping about the ills of folks who don’t belong in the same universe as Black excellence trying to tell us what to do.  

Lamar performed between the end zones where the slogan “End Racism” used to be. A few days before the Super Bowl, the NFL made the decision to remove the slogan, coinciding with a nationwide rebuke of DEI, where Black folks’ accomplishments are questioned as much as ever before. To perform at a halftime show for an organization like the NFL implies a tacit complicity in that type of empire, even in the face of raised Black fists at the 20-yard line. And for a certain sector of the audience, nothing Lamar says or does will erase that complicity. 

Symbolic Interaction

As Dennis explains above, Lamar's message was "a message and a series of messages aimed directly at Black folks who are yearning for a place to rest our hearts."  Lamar was singing to all of Black America validating them and saying that not only do you belong, but you are America and you cannot be erased.  This shared meaning was woven throughout his choices of the performance:

• Having all black performers - including the American flag being literally made of Black people.
• Dropping Serena Williams into the performance - another successful black American who has faced criticism for being too 'ghetto' 
• Through his set and Serena Williams appearance highlighting Compton, a city often denigrated as black and violent. 

Newsweek deciphers some of the symbolism in the show here:
The dancers, dressed in red, white and blue, created formations that resembled the American flag. Times of India reported that at one point, Lamar himself stood at the center, seemingly dividing them, a visual metaphor for America's ongoing racial and political divisions.

The Daily Mail analyzes the meaning of the performance here:

At the top of his set, Kendrick, 37, appeared to make a dig at President Donald Trump, who was among the high-profile attendees in the crowd. Addressing the audience, Kendrick said: 'The revolution is about to be televised; You picked the right time but the wrong guy.' The multi-Grammy award-winner was of course referring to Gil Scott-Heron's acclaimed 1971 poem, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which speaks to the Black power movement of the 1960s. However, Kendrick's mention of the 'wrong guy' sent the internet into a frenzy, immediately leading them to believe he was referencing January's US Election.

Kendrick's back-up dancers were dressed in red, white and blue, in reference to the American flag. During the rapper's track Humble, they stood in formation on the stage making the flag much clearer to see. At first, the dancers were unified, but seconds into the track they divided in half with Kendrick standing in-between them. Some eagle-eyed audiences noted this and deduced that the group was split to show how the country is politically and culturally divided. Others noticed that all of Kendrick's dancers were Black, which was an apparent nod to America's history of slavery. 'Black folk representing the American flag because modern America was built on our labor… Kendrick I see you,' said one. Another wrote: 'Kendrick creating the American flag and then splitting it in half to symbolize the country's divineness... the amount of amazingly executed political symbolism in this one performance… I'm going to have to sit down with a notebook and pen.' A third said: 'Kendrick making the American flag out of black men was absolutely beautiful, and the message was clear. 'Black people built America, and the same people that he was embracing are now calling the performance boring.'

Ernest Owens at The Root says that Kendrick Lamar's halftime show was a coded indictment of the current state of affairs in America.

...the performance was an artistic statement about the current state of America as President Donald Trump (presumably) watched live. Having legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam narrating the show (and serving as Lamar’s subconsciousness) was intentional. Having an all Black cast of dancers and performers dressed in red, white, and blue was also intentional....  

During his set, parts of the Super Bowl crowd were lit up to formulate the sentence “WARNING WRONG WAY” – a symbolic message of where our nation is currently headed.In another sequence, the wide gap in between his background dancers (all dressed in either red, white, or blue jumpsuits) forming a disjointed American flag clearly implied a divided country. 

All of this after the NFL itself decided to drop their “End Racism” banner on their end zones isn’t a coincidence.... The greatest rapper of our generation did it all: He put the nail in the coffin of an industry heavyweight and more importantly reminded the rest of America that the bigots currently occupying the White House are not like us.

Summer Research Opportunity

 

1.10MWF Critical Thinking Data and Statistics

As students enter, please look over the reading by Joel Best, "The Truth about Damned Lies and Statistics." 

Be ready to answer questions about the reading.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

WEDNESDAY"S CLASS will be an Asynchronous Assessment.

You do NOT need to be present in class to take it.

• The assessment will be posted to Sakai at the beginning of your class time.
• You have 60 minutes to complete it once you start - after that it will submit whatever you have finished at that time.
• You have until the start of the next class, Friday, to submit it.
• Please do NOT share answers with each other, but the assessment is open note.
• Please do NOT feel pressured by the assessment because you will have an opportunity to do a qualitative (essay) assessment instead if you are dissatisfied with your grade.
• You can NOT skip questions - you must answer in order.

Here is the Google Form for students who are absent.

Small group discussion of reading.

1. What's the problem with the statistic about children killed by guns? 

2.  According to Best, what are the 2 harmful ways that people view statistics? 

3.  How does Best say people should view statistics? 

Operationalizing terms

4.  Rather than viewing a statistic's flaws, how does Best say that people should be thoughtful about statistics? 

How to be critical of statistics/research:

Ask questions.

Don't just accept the data but ask where it came from.

Look for a section (usually at the end) called Discussion or Limitations;  usually, authors are critical of their own work.

Here is an example of people not being critical of a stat on Twitter/X:

Apply:  Best's reading to your own research.

Individually

5.  What statistics or claims are in the research that you found?  Apply some of Best's suggestions to statistics from your research article.

Watch this humorous take on science and stats from John Oliver.

 

Like the video explains, research is rigorous and sometimes slow and tedious. It takes time and trials and analysis. Research doesn't lend itself to sweeping generalizations - it is usually more specific and targeted, nuanced.  Examining Statistics in Sociology (and generally) requires critical thinking.  By critical, I mean being detailed and inquisitive about the stats.  For example, let's examine the following claim that we hear often (and many of us or our parents may even have said).

Claim:  There is a lot of crime in Chicago.

Research this claim critically.  In small groups try to examine this claim critically and then explain your finds to the class.  

6.  How can we be critical of this claim; what questions would you ask before accepting this claim as fact?  What details would you want to know?

What nuances should we know before making this claim?

Remember that statistics are rhetorical - they must be defined and explained by words.

Operationalizing Terms - what do we mean by crime?

Below is a great example of critical assessment from the Chicago Reader article, 

Politics of fear: Are youth really to blame for the carjacking spike?
Cops say masked teens with a thirst for violence and joyrides are terrorizing the city. An examination of arrests reveals a narrative built on shoddy data and anecdotal evidence.  From the article; 

From the way CPD has presented the numbers it’s not at all clear how many of the 1,127 arrests were actually related to last year’s 1,417 carjacking cases. Deenihan didn’t explain that oftentimes CPD arrests multiple people related to a single carjacking incident, nor did he mention how many of those arrests were for incidents that happened in prior years. In a table breaking down arrestees’ age ranges in five-year increments, the 15-20 age group was indeed the largest in 2020. More than half of the people arrested, however, were actually over the age of 20. 

"It’s bullshit. It’s just false. It’s wrong, the way it’s being talked about,” University of Chicago sociologist Robert Vargas told me months later. “From the beginning the city crafted this narrative as if it were young people seeking joyrides who were committing the carjackings, when anyone who’s taken a simple statistics course would know they’re basing their conclusion off a tiny fraction of data....” 

While carjacking had spiked, last year saw 21,567 fewer robberies, burglaries, and thefts compared to 2019. This was part of a yearslong trend in the decline of these types of crimes. About 18,000 parked, unattended cars are stolen every year in Illinois, and that hadn’t become more common in 2020; CPD claims that these days cars are easier to steal because many people leave their key fobs in their vehicles. “Meanwhile this one uptick in this one subcategory of robbery had story after story and press conference after press conference,” she remarked about carjacking. 

From PBS, What U of Chicago Crime Lab Data says about Chicago crime

The Chicago Police Department reports 661 murders occurred as of Dec. 10, 2022, down 15% from 2021 when the tally was 776. Overall shootings are also reported as down by about 20% from 2021 numbers, from 3,399 to 2,718. But reported incidents of motor vehicle theft have nearly doubled from 2021, from 9,933 to 19,238. Theft numbers also showed a steep increase.

Qualitative Understanding of Violent Crime

Supreme Court narrows definition of violent crime

What is "violent" crime? Does armed robbery count?

FBI Uniform Report

The FBI categorizes violent crime as, "violent crime is composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes are defined in the UCR Program as those offenses that involve force or threat of force."

What do we mean by a lot? Compared to where?

Cross-Cultural Research 

Statista ranks the most violent countries in the world here.

Statista ranks the most violent cities in the world.

From Bloomberg, Gun Violence in US Cities Compared to the Deadliest Nations in the World (2013):

Cross-sectional Research on Crime Within the United States 

A critical analysis of post-pandemic violent crime rates from the Brennan Center for Criminal Justice (2023) shows that understanding crime rates is complex and requires a critical analysis.

Reported violent crime per capita by state from Statista

Violent crime is generally contrasted with property crime, with the latter defined as the taking of money or property without force (or the threat of force) against the victims. Note that in these definitions, robbery counts as violent crime whereas burglary does not. Comparing the the number of committed crimes in U.S. by category, property crime far outnumbers violent crime, while aggravated assault accounts for some two-thirds of all violent crime.

Crime per capita by state from World Population Review

Crime overall is relatively low in Illinois and the homicide rate is middle of the pack.

Gun deaths by state from World Population Review

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/gun-deaths-by-state

Firearm deaths by state from CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm

Comparison of Chicago to Other Big Cities

The Council on Criminal Justice published this 2022 study of The Pandemic, Social Unrest and Crime in U.S. Big Cities.

7. What is one way to be critical of the claim using any of the research above?

Cross Sectional Research within Chicago

Mixed methods study (2023) from Brookings Institution including qualitative analysis highlights the differences between actual crime and perception of crime as well as violent crime and non-violent crime comparing Chicago to three other large U.S. cities.  People's perception of crime is way up, but the actual spike in crime is not violent as much as it is property crime.  Here is the increase in crimes in these four cities:

Sociological Imagination: Where you are in city matters

Crime in Chicago; What Does the Research Tell Us? from Northwestern U.

https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/news/2018/crime-in-chicago-research.html

The violence was also extremely concentrated. Skogan said 50 percent of all the shootings in 2016 occurred in just a handful of neighborhoods, including Austin, Garfield Park, North and South Lawndale, Englewood, and West Pullman. The crime is even more concentrated in those communities, often occurring within just a few blocks. There is one four-by-four block area in Humboldt Park, Skogan said, that has been in the top 5 percent of shootings in the city every year for 27 years. 

Longitudinal Data and Cross-sectional Homicide Data by Race

Note that the crime rate has not spiked generally for all Chicagoans the longitudinal and cross-sectional data above shows that the largest spike in homicide victims are Black.

What do you mean by Chicago?

Sociological Imagination

From Crain's Chicago Business; All Big Cities Have a Violence Problem. Chicago's is Different (2022):

How safe is Chicago? The answer depends on where you're standing.

The North Side is as safe as it's been in a generation, with a homicide rate that has declined steadily throughout this century, barely ticking up during the especially violent years of 2016 and 2020, then falling again in 2021, even as the city as a whole experienced its bloodiest year since the mid-1990s, according to Chicago Police Department data.

The homicide rate for the city’s four North Side police districts (the 18th, 19th, 20th and 24th) last year was 3.2 residents per 100,000, according to analysis of data from the University of Chicago Crime Lab—lower than Evanston’s, Champaign’s and Springfield’s, based on data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Overall, Chicago’s per-capita murder rate is higher than in New York City or Los Angeles, but is lower than in Midwestern cities such as Detroit, Milwaukee and St. Louis.

Here is crime data from the City of Chicago:

8. What is another way to be critical of the claim using the data above?

Additional data and stats about the crime in Chicago:

Here is crime data from the City of Chicago.

Here is crime data from Chicago Police Department.

Here is crime data from the City of Chicago.

Here is the City of Chicago Crime Map

Why People Misperceive Crime Trends (Chicago Is Not the Murder Capital) from the NYT Upshot (2021)

In Conclusion:

How should we think about statistics in research articles?

What does it mean to think critically?

Other ways of thinking critically:

• Applying Critical Thinking to Violence in Chicago click here
• Applying Critical Thinking to the "crisis at the border" or "migrants" click here.
• Applying Critical Thinking to gun deaths and Mass Shootings
• Applying Critical Thinking to the protests after George Floyd