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Violence Significantly Increased by Social Interactions
Last edited Thu Jan 23, 2014, 03:35 PM - Edit history (1)
It turns out that who you know and spend time with may have more of an influence on your risk of becoming a gun homicide victim, than race, age and gang affiliation, according to a new study from a team of sociologists at Yale University.
Andrew Papachristos, an associate professor of sociology at Yale, analyzed police and gun homicide records from 2006 to 2011 for people living in a high-crime neighborhood in Chicago. He found that 41 percent of all gun homicides occurred within a network of less than 4 percent of the neighborhood's population, and that the closer one is connected to a homicide victim, the greater that person's chances were for becoming a victim. Each social tie removed from a homicide victim decreased a person's odds of becoming a victim by 57 percent.
"What the findings essentially tell you is that the people who are most at risk of becoming a victim are sort of surrounded by victims within a few handshakes," Papachristos says. "These are young men who are actively engaged in the behaviors that got them in this network."
Papachristos says it makes sense to look at the spread of gun violence like the spread of a disease or an epidemic, comparing it to how people contract HIV. Much like the roles needle sharing and unprotected sex play in the spread of HIV, a person's behaviors and personal associations play a role in the spread of gun violence homicides, he says. "It's the behavior of sharing needles that puts you at risk for contracting HIV, not simply being poor and black and living in a certain neighborhood," Papachristos says. "The same is true with violence. It's who you hang around with that gets you in trouble."
Andrew Papachristos, an associate professor of sociology at Yale, analyzed police and gun homicide records from 2006 to 2011 for people living in a high-crime neighborhood in Chicago. He found that 41 percent of all gun homicides occurred within a network of less than 4 percent of the neighborhood's population, and that the closer one is connected to a homicide victim, the greater that person's chances were for becoming a victim. Each social tie removed from a homicide victim decreased a person's odds of becoming a victim by 57 percent.
"What the findings essentially tell you is that the people who are most at risk of becoming a victim are sort of surrounded by victims within a few handshakes," Papachristos says. "These are young men who are actively engaged in the behaviors that got them in this network."
Papachristos says it makes sense to look at the spread of gun violence like the spread of a disease or an epidemic, comparing it to how people contract HIV. Much like the roles needle sharing and unprotected sex play in the spread of HIV, a person's behaviors and personal associations play a role in the spread of gun violence homicides, he says. "It's the behavior of sharing needles that puts you at risk for contracting HIV, not simply being poor and black and living in a certain neighborhood," Papachristos says. "The same is true with violence. It's who you hang around with that gets you in trouble."
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/14/gun-violence-significantly-increased-by-social-interactions
interesting study that perhaps points out a way to predict and possibly stop gun violence.
The Chicago police actually used the study to target gang members:
The commander of a West Side police district plans to knock on the doors of the most dangerous gangbangers to issue warnings to stop the violence.
The effort by Austin District Cmdr. Barbara West comes as Chicago police try to quell gang violence with both innovative ideas and more traditional methods such as paying hundreds of officers to work overtime on their days off.
The strategy is based on research by Andrew Papachristos, a sociology professor at Yale University who conducted a study on the West Side several years ago that showed that much of the violence involved a relatively small number of victims and offenders.
A computer analysis showed a little more than 400 people across the city — including about 25 in the Austin District — are the most at-risk from among more than 16,000 gang members. There can be many reasons for making the list, including lengthy arrest records, the serious nature of the offenses and whether they have been shooting victims themselves.
The effort by Austin District Cmdr. Barbara West comes as Chicago police try to quell gang violence with both innovative ideas and more traditional methods such as paying hundreds of officers to work overtime on their days off.
The strategy is based on research by Andrew Papachristos, a sociology professor at Yale University who conducted a study on the West Side several years ago that showed that much of the violence involved a relatively small number of victims and offenders.
A computer analysis showed a little more than 400 people across the city — including about 25 in the Austin District — are the most at-risk from among more than 16,000 gang members. There can be many reasons for making the list, including lengthy arrest records, the serious nature of the offenses and whether they have been shooting victims themselves.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-chicago-police-heat-list-20130721,0,3279169.story
30 replies
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I build things like this, myself....
This is a Caudron G.VI of Escadrille C575, operating in Lebanon shortly after the end of WWI. It is scratch-built, in 1/72 scale.
This is an Albatros D.V of Jasta 4, brought down intact in the English lines in July of 1917. It is from a kit, in the same scale.
This is a 'Nieuport Scout' of 60 Sqdn., its pilot, 2nd Lt. C. S. Hall. was killed in it April 7, 1917, just short of his nineteenth birthday. Also from a kit, in the same scale.
This is a Boeing F4B-4 of VMF 10 at San Diego, early 1932. Also from a kit in the same scale.
There's some good evidence that lowering lead levels is leading to lowering of violence levels in many nations, not just the USA.
