Attitudes about the Criminal Justice System, Collective Efficacy, and Violence Norms and Their Relationship to Gun Violence in Brownsville, Brooklyn

• In Event: Firearms and Violence

Abstract

Along with a national trend of declining gun violence rates, New York City has also witnessed a drop, but gun violence remains high in certain minority neighborhoods characterized by concentrated disadvantage. In Brownsville, Brooklyn, it was reported that more people had been shot there in 2014 than in all of Manhattan. Given the neighborhood’s high rates of gun crime, Brownsville is an appropriate setting to explore reasons for gun violence by surveying a high-risk population. This paper presents the results of a 2015 survey that used respondent-driven sampling (a proven technique for interviewing hard-to-reach or stigmatized populations) to find and interview 208 Brownsville residents with recent justice system involvement, examining the relationships between attitudes towards the criminal justice system, feelings of collective efficacy, norms about violence, and gun usage.

Authors

• Elise Jensen, Center for Court Innovation

• Suvi Hynynen Lambson, Center for Court Innovation