John P. Galvin, MS, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, 835 S. Wolcott, E-804, Chicago, IL 60612, 312-654-8592, jgalvi1@uic.edu, Jenifer Cartland, PhD, Department of Political Science, Loyola University of Chicago, 6025 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626, Patricia F. Meleedy-Rey, Child Health Data Lab, Children's Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children's Hospital Plaza Box 157, Chicago, IL 60614, and Karen Sheehan, MD, MPH, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Children's Memorial Hospital, 2300 Children's Plaza, Chicago, IL 60614.

Early childhood exposure to violence has been proven to be predictive of future aggressive behaviors and victimization. Assessing a child’s exposure to violence, therefore, is an important measure in determining their level of risk of future injury and in implementing injury interventions. Current methods are dependent on self-report measures, which lack the accuracy and reliability needed to determine risk. Geographical information systems (GIS) can integrate information from police reports, census data and trauma registries to create a thematic map of intentional injury, which provides investigators with an accurate measure of community-level violence exposure. The objective of our evaluation was to use GIS to combine violent crime, trauma, poverty, and demographic data to create an accurate picture of the status of our target communities. We used this data to create a risk index for communities, which helps us determine our participants’ levels of exposure to violence. We have found GIS to be a powerful tool for combining information in a visual manner and to illustrate social risks that affect the health of urban children. GIS can help evaluate interventions, inform public health researchers, and guide policymakers.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Articulate how crime reports, trauma, and census data can be combined to index the risk of violence exposure in a community.
• Understand the link between violence exposure and perpetration of or victimization from violence.
• Describe how specific types of violent crimes can have unique geographical patterns.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Youth Violence

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.