Firearm violence continues to plague American cities across the United States. For example, the overall homicide rate was 5.3 per 100,000 in 2016 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016). More simply stated, over five people become victims of lethal violence per 100,000 people across the country. Research demonstrates that firearm violence is higher in areas of social disadvantage and clusters in neighborhoods with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage (Cohen & Tita, 1999; Rosenfeld, Bray, Egley, 1999). Neighborhood and crime researchers have historically focused on the macro level of analysis when studying crime within and across neighborhoods, but more recent research displays that crime spatially clusters at the micro level (Braga et al., 2010, Weisburd et al., 2004). It is still unclear if specific measures of neighborhood characteristics, such as collective efficacy influences crime at the street segment level (Braga and Clark, 2014). Similarly, much firearm research is based on homicide incidents and omits more common non-fatal shootings. This study addresses these limitations by including both the macro (i.e., census tract) and micro (i.e., street segment) levels of analyses and includes both fatal and non-fatal shootings. Using the theoretical framework of social disorganization theory and collective efficacy theory, this research seeks to examine how fatal and non-fatal shootings cluster across neighborhoods, examine the patterns of disorder and disadvantage across neighborhoods and street segments, and improve the construct of collective efficacy through a unique measurement system. The study examines over 1500 fatal and non-fatal shootings in Indianapolis, Indiana, over a three-year time period. Independent measures of neighborhood disadvantage are drawn from the US Census Bureau, as well as a unique dataset from the City of Indianapolis. The data measures for disorder and collective efficacy allow for analyses at the neighborhood and street segment level. Descriptive statistics explain where fatal and non-fatal shootings cluster across the city and generalized hierarchical linear modeling was conducted to explain how disorder, social disadvantage and collective efficacy correlate with firearm violence. Results suggest fatal and non-fatal shootings cluster at both the neighborhood and street segment level and including non-fatal shootings into the study of gun violence gives a more robust picture of where firearm violence is occurring within the community. Additionally, community level measures vary at the street segment level when accounting for neighborhood levels of poverty. These findings have both methodological and policy implications that contribute to the study of communities and crime and firearm violence.
Read
