Citation

Cheon C, Lin Y, Harding DJ, Wang W, Small DS. JAMA Netw. Open 2020; 3(11): e2027591.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.27591

PMID

33252687

Abstract

Substantial racial disparities exist for gun homicide deaths in the US: the 2003 to 2017 age-adjusted rate was 7.4 times higher for Black individuals than for White individuals.1 Walker et al2 found an even greater disparity in Chicago and suggested that because race may be a surrogate for income, public health interventions should aim to alleviate poverty in order to reduce gun violence. However, in Philadelphia, Black individuals of the same income level as White individuals were at higher risk of being shot, suggesting that public policies to reduce gun violence and racial disparities might need to go beyond alleviating poverty.3 In this cross-sectional study, we examine disparities in gun homicide rates among neighborhoods of different racial composition for fixed levels of socioeconomic status...

...For a fixed socioeconomic status of a US Census tract--high, medium or low--US Census tracts with a higher proportion of Black residents have higher gun homicide rates. The US remains highly residentially segregated by race despite improvements since the 1960s.5 Besides residential segregation reducing Black individuals' socioeconomic status by such mechanisms as inhibiting wealth accumulation through housing value and limiting access to high-quality schools,6 our findings suggest that even among neighborhoods of the same socioeconomic status, residential segregation may put Black individuals at higher risk of gun homicide. Potential explanations include the following being more prevalent in higher proportion Black neighborhoods: lack of institutional resources and opportunities caused by racial wealth gaps and underinvestment, the legacy of punitive law enforcement leading to difficulties controlling crime, lower collective efficacy due to lack of political power or city responsiveness, geographic proximity to poor neighborhoods, and gang networks or interconnections. Further studies should be conducted to investigate these explanations and design policies to reduce gun homicides. Limitations of this study include the inability to pinpoint the demographic characteristics of the people affected by gun homicides.

Language: en