The Looking Glass of Self-Help: Temporal, Relational, and Environmental Dynamics in Modern Day Gun Violence

• In Event: Roundtable: Efforts to Engage with Urban Bias in Neighborhood Studies of Crime

Abstract

Discourse on gun violence has largely focused on mass shootings in recent years, but gun violence has been and continues to be an important issue at the local level for jurisdictions across the country. Studies show that most gun violence occurs in context-specific incidents, where perceived disrespect, disputes, financial gain, and instances of revenge are the primary motivator behind these violent acts. These context-specific incidents can be viewed as a form of self-help. While self-help typically describes self-enacted justice in traditional societies, the violence studied here exhibits those very characteristics despite occurring in solidified lawful jurisdictions. The current study utilizes the theoretical framework of self-help to understand gun violence within the medium-sized city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Employing content analysis of 48 narrative reports of cases involving gun violence from the District Attorney’s Office of Tuscaloosa County, the current study finds that the threshold by which someone feels compelled to use a gun against another person was not always a high bar to reach. Interventional measures that combine the efforts and collaboration of health services and the justice system should be implemented to target the influential factors of violence in the context of poverty, community distrust, and perceptions of informal ethics.

Author

• Kenneth Wilhelm, University of Alabama