The role of specialized lenders in extending mortgages to lower-income and minority homebuyers

Home-purchase lending to lower-income and minority households and neighborhoods has expanded significantly and at a faster rate than lending to other borrowers in recent years. Over the same period, however, an increasing proportion of applicants for conventional home-purchase mortgages, including lower-income and minority applicants, have had their applications denied. The first trend often has been taken as evidence that lenders' efforts to expand credit availability have been successful, whereas the second trend has contributed to concerns about access to credit and the fairness of the lending process. An important but little-recognized force behind the shift of credit toward lower-income and minority borrowers has been a rapid expansion of activity by subprime and manufactured-home lenders, lenders who are oriented toward lower-income and minority households. Using data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) from 1993 to 1998, this article finds that part of the growth in mortgage lending and most of the increase in denial rates are associated with the substantial and growing share of mortgage activity of institutions that specialize in subprime and manufactured-home lending.Mortgages ; Discrimination in mortgage loans

How analysts think: think-steps as a tool for structuring sensemaking in criminal intelligence analysis

Sensemaking has been described as a process involving information structuring. However, there are few detailed accounts of how this manifests in practice, particularly in relation to the creation and use of external representations such as data visualisations, and how such structuring aids sensemaking. To explore these questions in depth, we present an interview study of police crime analysts from which a model of their analysis process is developed. We describe the model focusing on the notion of 'think-steps', which for the analysts acted as a primary structuring concept. We describe how 'think-steps' propagate throughout the analysis process captured in the model. For the analysts, 'think-steps' are extensible templates that decompose a case into elements, provide a way of storing and visually structuring data, support generation of requests for information, focus research, simulate a case, and shape reporting. We reflect on the implications that our findings might have for design, including the possibility of a repertoire of evolving, sharable and reusable templates for sensemaking within a community of practice

360 Cinematic literacy: a case study

360 degree film making necessitates a new language for storytelling. We investigate this issue from the point of view of the user, inferring 360 literacy from what users say about their viewing experiences. The case study is based on material from two user studies on a 360 video profile of an artist. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis to understand how users made sense of the video. The sense of presence had a strong impact on the experience, while the ability to look around meant new skills had to be developed to try to make sense of 360 video. Viewers had most to say about a few particular shots, and some themes of note emerge: such as being in unusual places, certainty about what should be attended to and focus points, switches between first and third person views, and close-ups and interest

How analysts think: navigating uncertainty – aspirations, considerations and strategies

While there has been considerable research in understanding the process of sense making in criminal intelligence analysis as well as the formulation of arguments in the domain of law, there remain gaps in our understanding of how to move seamlessly from the fluidity of the sense making activities to the rigour of argumentation construction. This matter is complicated further with high uncertainty which accompanies sense making and which propagates through to the rigour that accompanies argumentation. This paper attempts to understand how Criminal Intelligence Analysts navigate uncertainty from fluidity to rigour constructs and outlines some of the considerations and strategies deployed by the Criminal Intelligence Analyst to reach, or increase, certainty at a given point in time during the analysis process. This paper concludes by proposing preliminary suggestions with the aim to narrow the gaps in this journey from fluidity to rigour, at least, marginall

Supporting the externalisation of thinking in criminal intelligence analysis

At the end of the criminal intelligence analysis process there are relatively well established and understood approaches to explicit externalisation and representation of thought that include theories of argumentation, narrative and hybrid approaches that include both of these. However the focus of this paper is on the little understood area of how to support users in the process of arriving at such representations from an initial starting point where little is given. The work is based on theoretical considerations and some initial studies with end users. In focusing on process we discuss the requirements of fluidity and rigor and how to gain traction in investigations, the processes of thinking involved including abductive, deductive and inductive reasoning, how users may use thematic sorting in early stages of investigation and how tactile reasoning may be used to externalize and facilitate reasoning in a productive way. In the conclusion section we discuss the issues raised in this work and directions for future work

How can we design tactile interactive software for argument construction in criminal intelligence analysis?

Argumentation construction refers to the different ways in which people can formulate a well defined argument that can withstand scrutiny in a court of law. Different domains have enhanced the research on argumentation construction, but each enhancement relates either to ‘evidence’ or to the ‘relevance of evidence’, thus making these elements the corner stone elements of argumentation construction. By attempting to understand how Criminal Intelligence Analysts understand and manage these corner stone elements, as well as how these elements differ to the law domain counterparts, we aspire to formulate design guidelines for a software program that is tailored to how Criminal Intelligence Analysts think and argue during sense-making activities. This paper outlines the relevant literature and why the researchers consider ‘evidence’ and the ‘relevance of evidence’ as the corner stone elements of argumentation construction. The results section summarises the outcomes of two qualitative studies. The first study aims to understand how Criminal Intelligence Analysts perceive and manage uncertain information and how this eventually leads to the creation of evidence (as exhibits) for a court of law. The second study aims to understand how Criminal Intelligence Analysts know which information is relevant for the task at hand, especially when uncertainty is high. The results of the two studies still need to be combined and put into practise (as design guidelines) to test the effectiveness and validity of the results obtained in the two studies. This is listed as future work in the conclusion section

User experience of panoramic video in CAVE-like and head mounted display viewing conditions

Panoramic 360 video is a rapidly growing part of interactive TV viewing experience due to the increase of both production by consumers and professionals and the availability of consumer headsets used to view it. Recent years have also seen proposals for the development of home systems that could ultimately approximate CAVE-like experiences. The question arises as to the nature of the user experience of viewing panoramic video in head mounted displays compared to CAVE-like systems. User preference seems hard to predict. Accordingly, this study took a qualitative approach to describing user experience of viewing a panoramic video on both platforms, using a thematic analysis. Sixteen users tried both viewing conditions and equal numbers expressed preferences for each display system. The differences in user experience by viewing condition are discussed in detail via themes emerging from the analysis

Setting and motivation in the decision to participate: An approach to the engagement of diverse samples in mobile research.

Internet and mobile based research are powerful tools in the creation of large, cohort studies (eCohort). However, recent analysis indicates that an underrepresentation of minority and low income groups in these studies might exceed that found in traditional research [1-5]. In this report, we present findings from an experiment in research engagement using the Eureka Research Platform developed to enroll diverse populations in support of biomedical clinical research. This experiment involved the recruitment of African American and Latino participants in a smartphone based survey at a temporary, charitable, dental event sponsored, in part, by the research team, in order to explore the impact of setting and approach on recruitment outcomes. 211 participants enrolled including a significant representation of African Americans (51%) and Latinos (31%) and those with education levels at high school or less (37%). Interviews conducted after the study confirmed that our recruitment efforts within the context of a service event affected the decision to participate. While further research is necessary, this experiment holds promise for the engagement of underrepresented groups in research

How analysts think: how do criminal intelligence analysts recognise and manage significant information?

The Criminal Intelligence Analyst's role is to create exhibits which are relevant, accurate and unbiased. Exhibits can be used as input to assist decision-making in intelligence-led policing. It may also be used as evidence in a court of law. The aim of this study was to determine how Criminal Intelligence Analysts recognise and manage significant information as a method to determine what is relevant for their attention and for the creation of exhibits. This in turn may provide guidance on how to design and incorporate loose and flexible argumentation schemas into sense-making software. The objective is to be informed on how to design software, which affords Criminal Intelligence Analysts with the ability to effortlessly determine the relevance of information, which subsequently could assist with the process of assessing and defending the quality of exhibits

Effects of viewing condition on user experience of panoramic video

Panoramic video arises at the convergence of TV and virtual reality, and it is necessary to understand how these technologies interact to affect user experience in order to produce useful content. TV and film makers have developed a sophisticated language and set of techniques to achieve directed linear story telling on fixed screens, whereas virtual worlds more often emphasise user led exploration of possibly non-linear narrative and aspects such as presence and immersion in navigable 3D environments. This study focused on the user experience of panoramic video as viewed over two conditions, on a VR headset and using a handheld phone, and compared this to watching on a static screen thus emphasising the differences between traditional and panoramic TV. A qualitative approach to analysis was taken where users participated in semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis was performed which produced thematic maps describing user experience for each condition. A detailed and nuanced account of emerging themes is given. Subsequently, key themes were identified and graphed to produce user response profiles to the three viewing conditions that highlight differences in user experience in terms of presence, attention, engagement, concentration on story, certainty, comfort and social eas