IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v320y2023ics0277953623000308.html

The cumulative effect of gun homicide-related loss on neighborhood perceptions among street-identified black women and girls: A mixed-methods study

Author

Listed:
  • Hitchens, Brooklynn K.

Abstract

Racial disparities in death indicate that Black women and girls are disproportionately bereaved by violent loss across their lifetime. Yet the context and consequences of this loss remain largely understudied. This study examines the effect of gun homicide-related loss of relative/friends on subjective neighborhood perceptions among street-identified Black women and girls (ages 16 to 54). The study used a convergent mixed-methods design, with simultaneous quantitative and qualitative components. Data were collected from two low-income, high-crime neighborhoods in Wilmington, Delaware. Quantitative data (n = 277) included a community-based survey on health, opportunity and violence. Qualitative data (n = 50) included semi-structured interviews primarily from a sub-group of the survey population. This study used a street participatory action research (Street PAR) methodology, which included members of the target population onto the research project. OLS regression analyses predicted the effect of exposure to gun homicide on perceptions of neighborhood social environment (i.e., safety, aesthetic quality, walkability, social cohesion, and availability of healthy foods). Interviews were analyzed using grounded theory. Approximately 87% of those surveyed were exposed to a relative/friend gun homicide. All interviewees were exposed to a relative/friend gun homicide. Exposure to the gun homicide of either a relative or friend alone was nonsignificant. But the combination of exposure to gun homicides of both a relative and friend was significantly related to poorer neighborhood perceptions, even when controlling for co-occurring factors. Mixed-method findings indicate that the cumulative impact of gun homicide-related loss matters most in shaping negative neighborhood perceptions. Qualitative data suggest that losing multiple members of one's familial and peer networks to homicide is a powerful form of co-victimization that alters how participants conceptualize and navigate public space. Interventions to decrease gun violence should consider how traumatic loss has unintended consequences on the quality of life of co-victims and those in close proximity to street life.

Suggested Citation

  • Hitchens, Brooklynn K., 2023. "The cumulative effect of gun homicide-related loss on neighborhood perceptions among street-identified black women and girls: A mixed-methods study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:320:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623000308
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115675
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623000308
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115675?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Papachristos, A.V. & Wildeman, C., 2014. "Network exposure and homicide victimization in an African American community," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(1), pages 143-150.
    2. Geronimus, A.T. & Bound, J. & Colen, C.G., 2011. "Excess black mortality in the United States and in selected black and white high-poverty areas, 1980-2000," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(4), pages 720-729.
    3. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Nathaniel Hendren & Maggie R. Jones & Sonya R. Porter, 2026. "The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 116(1), pages 1-51, January.
    4. Burrell, Marcus & White, Ann Marie & Frerichs, Leah & Funchess, Melanie & Cerulli, Catherine & DiGiovanni, Lauren & Lich, Kristen Hassmiller, 2021. "Depicting “the system”: How structural racism and disenfranchisement in the United States can cause dynamics in community violence among males in urban black communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    5. Smith, J.R., 2015. "Unequal burdens of loss: Examining the frequency and timing of homicide deaths experienced by young black men across the life course," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105, pages 483-490.
    6. Sarah Goode, 2000. "‘Researching a Hard-To- Access and Vulnerable Population: Some Considerations on Researching Drug and Alcohol-Using Mothers’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 5(1), pages 61-73, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lind, Allison & Larson, Ryan P. & Mason, Susan M. & Uggen, Christopher, 2024. "Carjacking and homicide in Minneapolis after the police killing of George Floyd: Evidence from an interrupted time series analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    2. Aldenis Vásquez & Rafael Alvarado & Brayan Tillaguango & Cem Işık & Muntasir Murshed, 2023. "Impact of Social and Institutional Indicators on the Homicide Rate in Ecuador: An Analysis Using Advanced Time Series Techniques," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 1-22, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Leopold S. Bergman & Eric W. Chan & Adam Kapor, 2020. "Housing Search Frictions: Evidence from Detailed Search Data and a Field Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 8080, CESifo.
    2. John Gathergood & Fabian Gunzinger & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & Neil Stewart, 2020. "Levelling Down and the COVID-19 Lockdowns: Uneven Regional Recovery in UK Consumer Spending," Papers 2012.09336, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2020.
    3. Xiong, Ning & Wei, Yehua Dennis, 2025. "Economic inequality, intergenerational mobility, and life expectancy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 366(C).
    4. Nathaniel Baum-Snow & Daniel Hartley & Kwan Ok Lee, 2019. "The Long-Run Effects of Neighborhood Change on Incumbent Families," Working Paper Series WP-2019-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    5. Correll-King, Wesley M. & Ubong, Ini-Abasi & Monro, Dior & Scott, Kalaan & Strunk, Sydney N. & Stephenson, J. & Jadwin-Cakmak, Laura & Everhart, Avery & Gamarel, Kristi E., 2025. "Triggered: Qualitatively exploring structural and social drivers of firearm violence exposure among LGBTQ+ young adults of color in Detroit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 384(C).
    6. repec:osf:socarx:nkydt_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Magne Mogstad & Joseph P Romano & Azeem M Shaikh & Daniel Wilhelm, 2024. "Inference for Ranks with Applications to Mobility across Neighbourhoods and Academic Achievement across Countries," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 476-518.
    8. Gian Maria Campedelli, 2022. "Explainable Machine Learning for Predicting Homicide Clearance in the United States," Papers 2203.04768, arXiv.org.
    9. Ruth McAreavey & David L. Brown, 2019. "Comparative analysis of rural poverty and inequality in the UK and the US," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. Kristoffer Berg & Mr. Shafik Hebous, 2021. "Does a Wealth Tax Improve Equality of Opportunity? Evidence from Norway," IMF Working Papers 2021/085, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Nov 2024.
    12. Isaiah Andrews & Toru Kitagawa & Adam McCloskey, 2024. "Inference on Winners," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 139(1), pages 305-358.
    13. Francis Wong, 2024. "Taxing Homeowners Who Won’t Borrow," CESifo Working Paper Series 11185, CESifo.
    14. Yu-Ru Lin & Wen-Ting Chung, 2020. "The dynamics of Twitter users’ gun narratives across major mass shooting events," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Patrick Sharkey & Michael Friedson, 2019. "The Impact of the Homicide Decline on Life Expectancy of African American Males," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 645-663, April.
    16. Erin Cottle Hunt & Frank N. Caliendo, 2022. "Social security and risk sharing: A survey of four decades of economic analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1591-1609, December.
    17. Xinxin Wang & Shidan Xu & Yubo Zhuo & Julian Chun-Chung Chow, 2023. "Higher Income but Lower Happiness with Left-Behind Experience? A Study of Long-Term Effects for China’s Migrants," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 411-434, February.
    18. Smith, Thomas Bryan, 2021. "Gang crackdowns and offender centrality in a countywide co-offending network: A networked evaluation of Operation Triple Beam," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    19. repec:osf:socarx:pt6b2_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Arline Geronimus & John Bound & Annie Ro, 2014. "Residential Mobility Across Local Areas in the United States and the Geographic Distribution of the Healthy Population," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 777-809, June.
    21. Stephen J. Redding & Daniel M. Sturm, 2024. "Neighborhood Effects: Evidence from Wartime Destruction in London," Working Papers 322, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    22. Bruce, Marta M. & Ulrich, Connie M. & Webster, Jessica & Richmond, Therese S., 2022. "Injured black men's perceptions of the recovery environment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:320:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623000308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.