Trends and Risk Analysis

BDI uses different tools and methodologies to track demonstrations and political violence in real time, providing new data and risk analysis so that local communities and national organizations will be better able to address issues before they escalate. We share these tools in public visualizations and analysis, as well as custom products for key partners and organizations.

BDI's work builds off of the invaluable contributions of both formal partners and other projects that already produce or collect open-source data. 

Our formal data partners include:

Our visualization and analysis also draws on a wide range of open-source data projects and public data sources, including:

 


 

 

BDI State Brief Analysis

In order to provide key partners with a snapshot of state and local dynamics, Princeton Bridging Divides initiative prepared a series of state-specific "In Brief" summaries.

BDI's first series of state briefs were crafted ahead of the 2020 election, looking at 9 states, while the most recent spring 2021 analysis utilized the most recent data of protest, demonstrations and community violence to see any changes in those same states.

Analysis draws on multiple public data sources, including the US Crisis Monitor, Mapping Police Violence projectADL HEAT MapSPLC Hate Map, and a variety of local news sources in order to present a state and county-level description of recent trends and actors of concern.

 

US Crisis Monitor

US Crisis Monitor, a joint project of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and BDI, kick started ACLED's US-based work in 2020-2021. The project provided the public with real-time data and analysis on demonstrations and political violence across the United States.

Compared to other visualizations and analysis outlined below, ACLED data is updated most often (weekly).

Visit the U.S. Crisis Monitor main page for more on ACLED's U.S. methodology and to download the most up-to-date data.

 

Case Studies

The BDI team has conducted observations and interviews with the goal of helping community members tell their own stories of resilience.

 

Multi-Year Event and Incident Mapping

Prior year data on demonstrations and political violence is essential for understanding overall trends at a national and community level. In the U.S. context in particular, analysis requires a variety of data to help to represent historic and persistent political violence often committed against marginalized communities. 

Drawing on open-source data projects and public data sources outlined above, BDI will provide a variety of public and custom event and incident visualizations that help communities consider trends over time.