A Data-Driven Approach to Understanding Child Abuse in Sri Lanka
Child abuse is a devastating global problem, impacting millions of children every year. Understanding the scope and nature of this issue in Sri Lanka is crucial to developing effective prevention and response strategies. This project utilizes data visualization to make complex data on reported child abuse cases accessible to a wider audience.
Project Goals
- Transform Inaccessible Data: Government reports on child abuse were originally provided in PDF format with inconsistent data structures. This project involved significant data cleaning and standardization to create a unified dataset for analysis.
- Raise Public Awareness: By presenting the data in an easy-to-understand visual format, these dashboards aim to raise public awareness about the prevalence and distribution of reported child abuse cases in Sri Lanka.
- Empower Informed Discussions: The interactive features of the dashboards allow users to explore the data in more detail, fostering informed discussions about child abuse and potential solutions.
Data Acquisition and Processing
The data for this project came from annual reports published on the Sri Lankan government's child protection website (Link to Website). These reports were originally in PDF format, requiring a significant data extraction and cleaning process. Textual data on reported abuse cases was extracted and transformed into a single, usable CSV file.
Since the way abuse types were categorized varied across reports, a crucial step involved standardizing the data using the "International Classification of Violence against Children" developed by UNICEF (Link to Document). This alignment ensures consistency and allows for comparisons across different time periods.
Data Visualization with Tableau
Two interactive dashboards were created using Tableau to visualize the processed data:
Dashboard 1: Geospatial Distribution and Trend Analysis
- This dashboard displays a map of Sri Lanka, with districts and provinces colored based on the number of reported child abuse cases.
- Users can explore the data by hovering over specific regions to see the exact number of cases reported.
- Line charts on the dashboard show trends in reporting rates over time, allowing viewers to identify potential changes in awareness or reporting patterns.
Dashboard 2: Abuse Type Analysis
- This dashboard categorizes reported cases according to the UNICEF classification system (physical violence, sexual violence, neglect, psychological violence).
- Pie charts and bar graphs visually represent the distribution of different abuse types.
- Users can interact with the dashboard to see a breakdown of abuse types by district or province.
Importance of Data Visualization
Data visualization plays a critical role in transforming complex datasets into clear and understandable insights. These dashboards allow viewers to see patterns and trends that might be difficult to grasp from raw data tables. By presenting information visually, this project aims to raise awareness about child abuse in Sri Lanka and empower a wider audience to engage in informed discussions about solutions.
Limitations and Future Considerations
Acknowledge limitations (underreported cases) and discuss future considerations as mentioned in the article.
Conclusion
Summarize the project's value and contribution to raising awareness and promoting informed discussions about child abuse in Sri Lanka.
Link to the dashboards (replace with actual links):