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About the talk:

This talk advances a new, remote approach to detecting clandestine, mass graves in Mexico. Mexico has a large number of such graves, which have been primarily attributed to the violence of criminal networks, and identifying them contributes to broader efforts to combat impunity and insecurity. The approach here proceeds in six steps. First, using existing, publicly available data, Ingram identifies documented locations of clandestine graves in Mexico. Second, he collects images of publicly available maps of these locations. Third, he crowd-sources information on the physical contours of known graves and known non-graves. Fourth, he collects publicly available satellite images of these locations. Fifth, using the crowd-sourced boundaries, he extracts groundcover data from the satellite images. Sixth, using data from images of known gravesites and non-grave sites, he divides the data into training and testing samples, and employ classification and regression tree (CARTs) models to predict where other, yet undiscovered clandestine graves are located. The approach is generalizable across the entire country, and can be extended beyond graves to detect other types of illicit behavior. This is a new project that is in its early stages, and all feedback is welcome.

About the speaker:

Matthew C. Ingram, JD, PhD is an associate professor of public administration & policy and political science at the University of Albany. His research examines justice sector reforms, judicial behavior, and violence in Latin America. Ingram studies the political origins of institutional change and judicial behavior in the region's justice systems, focusing on sub-national courts in Brazil and Mexico. He draws also on a family history in Mexico (dual citizen, U.S. and Mexico), extensive fieldwork in Latin America, and seven years of professional experience in law enforcement in California.