Assessing Spillover Effects of Drug Markets on Gun Violence Across a Network of Neighborhoods in Three Cities

Overview

This study will investigate the role that drug markets play in the distribution of gun violence across routine mobility-based networks of neighborhoods in three U.S. cities.

Status

In Progress

Purpose

Using innovative cellphone mobility data, the purpose of this study is to understand the social, spatial, and network processes that link drug market activity to the distribution of gun violence across city neighborhoods.

Approach

This study uses secondary data from a variety of sources, including administrative criminal justice data, census data, and aggregate cellphone data, to conduct descriptive and inferential analyses. Using network analytic models and generalized linear models, this study examines first how neighborhoods are linked via the routine mobility of their residents, and then whether these connections facilitate higher gun violence in communities more strongly tied to drug markets.

Significance

Drug market activity is a robust predictor of city and neighborhood rates of gun violence, yet less is known about the processes linking drug market activity to gun violence in near and far neighborhoods. This study will provide insight into whether there are distant influences of drug markets on neighborhood rates of gun violence that are not captured solely by spatial adjacency effects and will have implications for gun violence reduction efforts in cities.

Investigator Bio

Nicole Johnson is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. Her current research interests span the areas of ecological crime dynamics, community gun violence, drug markets, and networks.