The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border increased by 90% between 2013 and 2014, drawing the attention and concern of the U.S. government, media and public. While some argue that it is U.S. immigration policies, such as the creation of DACA in 2012 that have caused this increase, a close statistical evaluation of the available data suggests a different dynamic. Coupling data on homicide rates by country with that of the number of children arriving each year suggests a relationship between violence and child immigration. Ninety-eight percent of unaccompanied minors arriving at the border are from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, representing a significant shift where prior to 2012, more than 75% of UACs were from Mexico. 

Significant concerns have been expressed regarding the journey that these children endure as they try to cross the border. These children are frequently trafficked, robbed, sexually assaulted, and exploited by gangs, cartels and even government authorities. At the same time, these countries have demonstrated that they are unable to protect children who are sent back, and sadly several children who were deported were subsequently discovered to have been killed. The U.S. has received criticisms for having inadequately provided for the influx of unaccompanied minors.

Meanwhile, U.S. economic support to many of these high-violence countries has been decreasing in recent years. U.S. support for Central America began to wane in the 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the region's civil conflicts. The Obama Administrations FY2015 request would increase bilateral aid to $27.6 million in El Salvador, $77.1 million in Guatemala, and $48.2 million in Honduras.

This soundscape represents U.S. economic assistance provided to Central America (1946-present), levels of violence in those countries (1995-2012), and the numbers of unaccompanied minors fleeing from this region and entering the United States (2008-present). Economic assistance and violence data are separated according to high violence and low violence countries. Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala were averaged together to create high violence lines of music. Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama and Mexico were averaged together for the low violence lines of music. Data for the unaccompanied minors are represented with pizzicato sounds.

What to listen for:
•	Beginning-end: two lines of music representing economic assistance to high and low violence countries. Notice that the pitch goes up as economic assistance is high for both in the ‘80s (1:23-1:30). The last three notes in the composition represent projected/anticipated economic assistance to the high violence countries.
• 	1:47: two more lines of music, representing violence rates in high and low violence countries, are added. These lines slowly go up in pitch, as violence rates go up.
•	2:12: pizzicato representing unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. Notice that the pitch goes up quickly and significantly from 2008-2014.


Data Sources:
1. Economic Assistance, by Country (1946-2012): U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants: Obligations and Loan Authorizations, July 1 1945 - September 30, 2012 gbk.eads.usaidallnet.gov/ 
2. Violence, by Country (1995-2012): based on homicide rates from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
3. Unaccompanied minors arriving in the U.S. (2008-2014): U.S. Border Patrol, "Unaccompanied Children (0-17) Apprehensions, Fiscal Year 2008 through Fiscal Year 2012," February 4, 2013 and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, "Southwest Border Unaccompanied Alien Children," August 2014.

Child Immigration from Central America

In 2014, the International Business Times, among other media publications, reported that Nebraska is one of the most "dangerous places in America to be Black." These reports were based on data released by the Violence Policy Center (VPC), a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy group that promotes gun control. According to this data, in 2011, 30 blacks were murdered in Nebraska. This black homicide rate of 34.3 per 100,000 people is double the national average of black victimization. Omaha specifically accounted for almost half of the recorded homicides for the entire state, and 90% of these murders were due to gun violence. Sadly, the year 2014 began with the death of a 5 year old girl, gunned down by a stray bullet.

Although Nebraska law requires anyone purchasing a handgun from an unlicensed, private person to first obtain a handgun certificate or a concealed handgun permit after a background check, there are a number of other laws on the books in other states that Nebraska has not adopted. Notably, Nebraska does not require firearms dealers to obtain a state license, meanwhile gun dealers represent a major source of illegally trafficked firearms. Nebraska also does not limit the number of firearms that may be purchased at one time; a quarter of all handguns recovered in relation to a crime were originally purchased as part of a multiple sale. Remarkably, Nebraska does not have regulations to ensure that handguns are properly constructed, even though it has been shown that poorly constructed firearms play a significant role in unintentional shootings and are disproportionately related to criminal misuse among juveniles.

In order to display the atrocities of gun violence, this soundscape represents the 21 individuals killed by gun violence in Nebraska in 2014. Musical pitch and pulsing patterns (sine waves mapped onto volume properties) were calculated based on the victims' life expectancies, given age and gender. The soundscape progresses in time through the tail end of 2013 (the first 15 seconds of the soundscape) and the entirety of 2014 (the remainder of the soundscape). The pitches corresponding with each of the victims cease at the point in the soundscape that represents their dates of victimization. The soundscape thus ends in silence, with there being no survivors. 

Sound engineering by Jeff Koster

Gun Violence

Legal Aid of Nebraska (LAN) is the only free civil legal services law firm in the state. Meanwhile, over 326,800 Nebraskans (18% of the state's population) are low-income and qualify for LAN's services. Many in this population struggle with basic food and shelter needs. In fact, 106,834 Nebraskan households are food insecure. Of this already economically vulnerable population qualifying for LAN's services, over 111,700 are children, 35,800 are elderly, and 54,200 are disabled.

By removing legal barriers and providing education about legal rights, LAN's services have been shown to directly improve the lives of its clients. But additionally, these improvements have been shown to have a positive ripple effect on clients’ lives along a range of measured social outcomes. In a recent study conducted by LAN, and represented in this soundscape, surveyed respondents who received LAN's services reported that their lives had improved along a range of outcomes, regardless of whether the outcome was directly related to their original legal problem. These improvements were shown at a statistically significantly higher rate than a group of surveyed people who had not received LAN's services.

Based on the results of this study, this soundscape was created. Specifically, the musical lines were grouped according to the legal problems about which the surveyed group contacted LAN: divorce, custody, child support, domestic violence, housing, bankruptcy, public benefits, and health/medical. The frequency with which notes are articulated were calculated based on the number of people facing each of the legal problems such that more people facing a particular legal problem resulted in more frequent tone articulations. The pitch was calculated according to the difference in rated improvement to a particular outcome between the group that received LAN's services and the group that did not. Therefore, higher pitches indicate a larger effect of LAN's services. As the soundscape progresses in time, the results of different outcomes are presented, with the pitch calculated based on the pitch from the previous outcome such that by the end of the soundscape the pitches represent a cumulative effect of the reported improvements.

Here is a chronological explanation of the soundscape:

(time: 00 - 00:10) - The soundscape begins with baseline pitches calculated according to the number of people who came to LAN with the specific legal issues. Lower pitches indicate more people with the problem, such that throughout the soundscape, higher pitches indicate an improved condition.

(time: 00:11 - 00:20) - Improvement in terms of health or medical conditions.

(time: 00:21-00:29) - Improvement in terms of one's ability to keep or find housing.

(time: 00:30 - 00:39) - Improvements in terms of one's housing conditions.

(time 00:40 - 00:48) - Improvements in terms of ability to keep one's children safe.

(time 00:49 - 00:58) - Improvements in terms of personal safety.

(time: 00:59 - 01:08) - Improvements in terms of one's ability to afford basic daily necessities.

(time: 01:09 - 01:18) - Improvements in terms of one's ability to keep or find employment.

(time: 01:19 - 01:28) - Improvements in terms of harassment from creditors.

(time: 01:29 - 01:37) - Improvements in terms of one's dependence on public assistance.

(time: 01:38 - end) - Improvements in terms of one's general quality of life.


Access To Justice


A recent analysis of census tract and household income data by the Pew Research Center shows that residential segregation by income has increased over the past three decades. This increase is related to a more general trend of a rising income inequality across the United States, which is reflected in a shrinking of neighborhoods that are either predominantly middle class or mixed income. And, despite this rise in segregation by income, segregation by race still trumps income as a predictor of where people live. The wealth gap between the average white and nonwhite American family is large and has even expanded since the Great Recession began.

The consequences of such segregation for low-income minority communities propagates these inequalities. Without access to more affluent neighborhoods, low-income minority families are also denied access to the benefits that exist in such communities. Communities in which 20% or more of the population is below the poverty level have fewer public and private resources, including quality schools, recreational areas, and grocery stores. The effects of residential segregation include: political, cultural and linguistic isolation; insufficient tax base for schools; low rates of homeownership; crime related to a high concentration of poverty; a lack of role models for youth; lack of food and clothing businesses; an entrepreneurship gap; and family disorganization.

This soundscape displays residential segregation in Omaha, Nebraska through the musical representation of population attributes of neighborhoods in northern and western parts of town. Musical pitches were calculated based on the proportions of the given attribute in the population. Population attributes are presented one at a time, first with North Omaha in the left ear and West Omaha in the right ear. All 12 population attributes are cycled through twice, once with North and West Omaha presented separately and sequentially and then at 2:34 minutes into the composition, the musical lines for North Omaha and West Omaha are presented together, as a musical display of desegregation.

Photo credit: http://www.wired.com/2013/08/how-segregated-is-your-city-this-eye-opening-map-shows-you/


Residential Segregation

Historically and continuing into the present, women have not been afforded the same rights, support, or benefits as have their male counterparts. The gender wage gap is perhaps one of the most salient manifestations of this trend: while some differences in occupation, experience and hours influence this gap, studies claim that even when those factors are controlled for, the pay gap remains. In 1963, John F. Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act which abolished wage disparity based on sex and although conditions improved, today women are still only paid 77 cents for every dollar that a man earns. And, as women age, the wage gap expands: on average women’s pay stops growing at age 39, whereas for men it is 48.

According to a 2010 study, there is one type of female that earns more than her male counterpart, and her characteristics are indicative of implicit cultural priorities: she is single, childless, urban and young (between the ages of 22 and 30). Women suffer more ageism and pay a greater price for having children. In fact, while marriage and parenthood are associated with less time spent on paid work-related activities for women, the onset of family responsibilities has the reverse effect on the careers of men. 

This soundscape demonstrates these disparities through data on wages (1951 - present), workforce participation (1948 - present), poverty levels (1966 - present), housework hours (1965 - present), and educational achievement (1969 - present). Each data set has been converted into a musical line with pitch being calculated based on the disparity between men and women as the soundscape advances through the decades, starting in 1948 and continuing into the present. 

The concept of equality is presented as a single, repeating tone (216 Hertz) and each musical line can be understood in reference to this tone. Throughout the soundscape, poverty data holds relatively steady, lower than the equality pitch as women have consistently been more likely to be in poverty than men. Workforce participation and income music lines initially rise steadily closer to the equality pitch, but have held steady in recent years. The only two lines of data that are above the equality pitch (meaning women are doing or achieving more than men) are households work hours and educational achievement. American mothers spend more time than fathers doing housework and although the gap has narrowed dramatically since 1965, it has leveled off in the past 10 years. Meanwhile, women’s gains in educational achievement have significantly outpaced those of men over the past 40 years.

Sound engineering by Jeff Koster


Gender Inequality

April Faith-Slaker is a cellist, composer, and researcher who embraces an interdisciplinary, multimedia approach to understanding and communicating about human experiences and social policy. With classical training on cello and advanced degrees in law, research methods and social policy, she is interested in expanding conversations about social issues beyond the traditional modes of communication, and believes that the arts can be used as an alternative lens for approaching these topics and expanding the terms of political discourse. 

As a fellow at the Union for Contemporary Art (http://www.u-ca.org/) in 2014, April began a data composition project. The project utilizes public data, math, and technology to translate complex social issues into auditory representations. Video presentation of the works allows for a multifaceted experience of each of the data sets. The charts and graphs presented in each video merge musical conversions and the fundamental data artifacts from the original source material. The charts and graphs represent a traditional method of communicating about these data, while the corresponding soundscapes played with the video demonstrate the auditory translation.

Video presentation of the complete set of soundscapes can be found on April’s website: www.aprilfaithslaker.com. 