Social Vulnerability and Firearm Violence: A Geospatial Analysis of Shootings Across New Jersey

• In Event: Violent Crime and Racial Segregation: Predictors and Collateral Consequences

Abstract

Gun violence is highly concentrated in certain neighborhoods – most often occurring in the most economically disadvantaged census tracts and zip codes that are racially and residentially segregated. Empirical research has recently started using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to examine the association between gun violence and the structural characteristics of neighborhoods. Studies consistently find that higher measures of disadvantage from the SVI at the census tract-level increase gun violence. The analyses thus far, however, are usually limited to large metropolitan US cities and counties. The current study used data from the SVI as well as the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) to examine interpersonal gun violence across census tracts throughout the entire state of New Jersey.

Author

• John Shjarback, Rowan University