Community gun violence definition and burden Flashcards
Beyond direct effects of gun violence, what are other impacts?
Direct exposure : externalizing behaviors such as aggression, and impulsivity
indirect exposure has been linked to more internalizing symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress
Direct in adolescence has also been associated with increased hypertension later in life - may be due to the detrimental impacts of chronic stress on the body across the life course (allostatic load)
How does gun violence in Baltimore compare to other cities like Detroit and Chicago?
Baltimore had the sixth highest gun homicide rate in 2020 compared to all other US cities. Less violent compared to jackson mississipi, st louis missouri, new orleans
Detroit right below baltimore, chicago further down
Patterns similar: violence concentrated in a small number of city blocks and among a very small proportion of individuals
Detroit and baltimore similar- history of residential segregation, historical booming industry (auto vs. Steel), one of the few cities that saw a decline in population between 2010-2020.
detroit is more sprawled, vacants demolished bc not built as row homes
Why does Baltimore have such high rates of gun violence?
Baltimore suffered what many cities suffered: residential segregation, disinvestment, racial inequities in home ownership and wealth accumulation.. And has not seen the gentrification and investment that cities like washington and new york have seen.
Explain historic Baltimore trends in violence
Baltimore followed pattern of many other cities with peak in violence in mid 90s around the crack epidemic. Followed by period of zero tolerance policing/broken windows theory under mayor martin o malley- criminal record and disruptions of families etc. For a huge proportion of population, negative relations between community and police
Explain recent trends in Baltimore violence and Freddie Gray
Huge spike in homicides and shootings in the aftermath of death- some related to protests and increased activity on the streets, much also related to a police pullback during that time due to extremely strained police/community relations
Homicides had been going down prior to 2015 and after an initial spike have essentially plateaued.
Freddie gray was a symbol for decades of political, socioeconomic and policing trends that primed Baltimore for the response after his death
Explain why plateau since 2015
Plateaued because no big structural changes occurred: red line transportation, new vacants outpacing rehabbed vacants.
some novel effective police driven interventions not tried again, lots of changes in police commissioners/ineffective policing, continued strained relations, impact of the consent decree on police morale and ability to staff
Stats dont disentangle mass shooting, IPV, community.. talk about that. what definition am i using?
using all homicides and non fatal shootings which does include IPV and mass shootings that are not targeted by Safe Streets specifically,
overlap between perpetrators of IPV and of community gun violence so some individuals targeted by safe streets could be potential perpetrators or future perpetrators of IPV, skills of deescalation etc. Are applicable to both
Mass shootings are a very small proportion of all gun death in the US. Depending on your definition of mass shootings about 0.01%
why is gun violence so high in the US? how compare to other countries?
Easiest to compare internationally is intentional homicide rate. US does not rank high overall.
Countries that are highly politically unstable and have instability from the international drug trade (el salvador, honduras, venezuela) are highest, but the US is higher than all other countries with similar government systems (democracy) and wealth (e.g. EU countries).
High because of gun availability, smaller social safety net. more guns than people
Gun violence is 3rd leading cause of death among youth 15-24. What are #1 and 2?
Homicide is actually now #2. Now above suicide at #3. Number 1 is unintentional injuries, which is mostly car accidents and poisoning
Homicide is the 3rd leading cause among 25-34 and then it drops in importance
you compare black to white males. what about other minorities?
Crude rate among hispanics (all races) is 13.8 per 100,000. Vs rates for black/white (89.1 vs. 7.5 per 100,000)
how is urbanicity defined in johnson study. why is urbanicity associated with violence?
Johnson did a county level analysis. Urbanicity measured as the proportion of county residents living in an area defined as urban by the Census Bureau
Not one axis of deprivation but multiple all operating at once on the same population: income inequality in urban areas, history of residential segregation and subprime mortgage lending that prevented intergenerational wealth and resulting education and employment gaps.
Baltimore was unique in that didn’t see increase in crime during covid. Why do you think that is?
Baltimore didn’t see an increase in homicides in 2020
did see an overall drop in crime
Drop in crime likely due to fewer people being outside which meant fewer opportunities for victimization.
This was despite a precipitous drop in arrests when states attorney marilyn mosby stop prosecuting lower level offenses to reduce the number of people who could be exposed to covid19 at the city jail
People intended to commit serious crimes still committed serious crimes.
BPD recovered 9% more guns in 2020 than the previous year. An interview of a worker from Roca suggested that Mosby’s decision emboldened more serious criminals/crimes
Other cities similar to baltimore (like saint louis) did see a large increase in homicdies in 2020 but many cities also had stable or declining rates.
Analysis comparing change in homicide 64 cities found about even split cities that increased/decreased homicide. no clear answer why
what is a crude rate?
Crude rate is the total number of events divided by the mid year total population of the selected geography
