Context Matters: Examining Mass Shootings and the Role of County and State Level Correlates

• In Event: Violence

Abstract

In the wake of mass shootings, a number of causal factors are suggested to help explain why these events occur with specific attention often paid to gun control, mental health, and violent media. Absent this discussion is consideration of the community context in which these attacks take place. Such inquiry is important as these events often take place in higher income, suburban neighborhoods rather than high crime urban cities, such as St. Louis, Detroit, New Orleans, and Baltimore, which have the highest homicide rates in the U.S. The present study seeks to fill this gap by examining 285 mass shootings occurring between 1966 and 2014 to determine potential commonalities in the community structures in which these incidents take place. Specific consideration is given to indicators of social disorganization, including the racial/ethnic composition, relative deprivation (e.g., level of affluence rather than the amount of poverty), and residential (in)stability of the community, as well as the respective crime rates and other demographic measures at both a state and county level. The findings of this study also are considered in conjunction with potential policy implications stemming from these events.

Authors

• Jaclyn Schildkraut, State University of New York at Oswego

• Rachel Lee, State University of New York at Oswego

• H. Jaymi Michell Elsass, Texas State University

• Collin Carr, State University of New York at Oswego