Decoding Violence: Safety Through Social Media

Firearm violence continues to be a serious public health problem in the United States, where the overall firearm death rate is 10 times higher than in other high-income countries. In particular, Chicago has seen a 58 % increase in homicides in 2016 due to fire-arm related homicides. Traditional firearm violence intervention treats the problem like an epidemic: Violent behavior transmits and spreads based on exposure through face-to face interactions.

However, recent research shows that interactions on social media often time result in real life violence. For March’s Design Museum Mornings, Desmond Patton, director of the SAFElab and Assistant Professor at the Columbia School of Social Work will discuss a prototype natural language processing system, using a small Twitter dataset from a deceased gang member from Chicago, that can help predict when online interactions become violent in real life.

Taking place at Fidelity Labs on the morning of March 17th, this presentation will help convey to attendees the power of social media as a tool for firearm violence prevention and will identify critical conditions that will help them think differently about root causes of violence. Complete with breakfast and coffee, March’s Design Museum Mornings is not to be missed.

Doors open at 8:30am; Presentation begins at 9:00am.

Design Museum Mornings is a monthly event series brought to you by Design Museum Boston. These events are meant to inspire you before your day begins and bring you closer to the Design Museum Boston community. Each event will include a short presentation by a local thought-leader, free breakfast, and great people to wake up with. These events are hosted and sponsored by various generous businesses of the Greater Boston area. If you are interested in hosting one of these events, please check out our host page here for more information. Become a member to attend this event for free. Membership starts at just $5/month