University of Central Florida Mapping Project

The purpose of this project was to examine the distribution across the zip codes of Orange County of Family Violence Threatens the Child incidents, law enforcement reports of domestic violence incidents, and Harbor House of Central Florida clients and services.  Information was obtained from all law enforcement agencies in Orange County, including Apopka, Belle Isle, Edgewood, Maitland, Oakland, Ocoee, Orlando, Orange County, Windermere, Winter Garden, Winter Park, and the University of Central Florida.  In addition, the Florida Department of Children and Families (Circuit 9), Orange County Animal Services, and Harbor House of Central Florida provided data.

Separate maps were created for each of the distributions using the ArcGIS mapping software version 9.3.  The first map presents reports of Family Violence Threatens the Child and includes both verified and unverified reports.  The map of Family Violence Threatens the Child reports across Orange County suggests that zip codes with the highest number of child abuse reports are: 32822, 32839, 32818, and 32808.  Readers are cautioned that these are numbers rather than rates of child abuse and, as such, do not take into consideration the population size within each zip code area.  The numbers also represent reports of child abuse rather than substantiated cases.  The next map includes verified reports only.  In this map, the four zip codes with the greatest number of reports are: 32839, 32703, 32818, and 32808.

Click here to download a larger version of the map

The second map looks at domestic violence incidents for Orange County in 2009.  The numbers represent incidents concluded to be domestic violence by law enforcement agencies.  As seen on the map, there are confirmed incidents of domestic violence in nearly all zip code areas in the county.  Higher numbers are found primarily around the central part of the county.  The four zip codes with the highest numbers of domestic violence incidents reported by law enforcement are: 32803, 32811, 32808, and 32805.

Click here to download a larger version of this map

The next map presents data from Harbor House of Central Florida for the calendar year 2009.  The map includes services provided by Harbor House of Central Florida including court, outreach, and shelter services.   Looking at the map, it is first apparent that services are provided to clients who reside in most of the zip codes in Orange County.  Second, consistent with the domestic violence incidents from law enforcement, greater numbers of services are provided in a few zip codes; specifically the zip codes of 32822, 32805, 32839, and 32808.  Two of the zip codes, 32808 and 32839, also had the highest number of Family Violence Threatens the Child abuse reports and law enforcement reports of domestic violence incidents.  Again, conclusions about these data should be made cautiously.  Zip code information was self reported and entered manually into a data base system.  Any errors in data entry or in self- reports may influence the map.

This year one of the areas that Harbor House has been focused on is the link between animal abuse and family violence.  Harbor House staff are working closely with animal services to provide training to animal services officers and are working to raise funds to build a kennel for victims who are fleeing abusive relationships with their pets.  In a partnership with Orange County Animal Services, we are able to also present a map that illustrates animal incidents in Orange County. Animal incidents include complaints of nuisance animals, bites and aggressive animals.  The final map presents these animal incidents by zip code.    The four zip codes with the greatest number of animal incidents in 2009 include:  32808, 32839, 32703, and 32825.

Click here for a larger version of the map

The distribution of Family Violence Threatens the Child reports and domestic violence incidents suggests that official contacts are geographically clustered together in a few zip codes within Orange County.  This does not necessarily mean that domestic violence related child abuse and domestic violence do not happen in other areas of the county or that they happen more or less often than these areas.  It does, however, suggest that those incidents that come to the attention of the Department of Children and Families, and law enforcement, are in close proximity to each other.

What about contact with Harbor House of Central Florida?  Clients using services from Harbor House are from the majority of the zip code areas in Orange County, but at the same time also come primarily from a few zip codes areas in the county.  Services go beyond the zip codes in which a large number of incidents were reported, with a greater number of services in areas where the need appears to be greatest.

Animal incidents were also geographically clustered, and, looking at all of the maps together, there appears to be overlap between zip code areas with the greatest number of animal incidents and Family Violence Threatens the Child reports, domestic violence incidents and Harbor House services.  Specifically, two zip codes (32839 and 32808) were represented across all of the areas mapped as having the greatest numbers.  These are illustrated in the table below.

ZIP CODES WITH THE GREATEST NUMBER OF REPORTS/INCIDENTS