Community-Level Social Processes and Firearm Shooting Events: A Multilevel Analysis

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Criminology
• Urban Studies

Background:

• Firearm violence is a significant public health concern, exacerbating community health disparities.
• Understanding community-level social processes at the street segment level is crucial for explaining firearm violence variations.
• Existing research has limited insight into the micro-level spatial dynamics of firearm violence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the spatial distribution of firearm shooting events on street segments.
• To investigate the association between street segment and neighborhood-level social processes and firearm violence.
• To identify specific street segments and social factors contributing to firearm violence concentration.

Main Methods:

• Employed multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression analysis.
• Assessed relationships between street segment-level social disorder, physical disorder, and collective efficacy.
• Incorporated neighborhood-level measures derived from social disorganization theory.

Main Results:

• Firearm shooting events are spatially concentrated on a small subset of street segments city-wide.
• Higher social and physical disorder, and lower collective efficacy at the street segment level predict increased shooting event rates.
• These associations persist even after accounting for neighborhood-level factors.

Conclusions:

• Specific street segments are disproportionately affected by firearm shooting events.
• Community social processes, including disorder and collective efficacy, significantly influence firearm violence at the street level.
• Prevention strategies should target high-risk street segments and address underlying social dynamics.