TY - JOUR
T1 - Reducing gunshot victimization in high-risk social networks through direct and spillover effects
AU - Wood, George
AU - Papachristos, Andrew V.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a CAREER award (No. SES-1151449) from the Sociology and Law and Social Science Programs at the National Science Foundation. We thank Y. Charette and D. Kirk for providing valuable feedback. The funder had no role in the conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - More than 60,000 people are victimized by gun violence each year in the United States. A large share of victims cluster in bounded and identifiable social networks. Despite a growing number of violence reduction programmes that leverage networks to broaden programmatic effects, there is little evidence that reductions in victimization are achieved through spillover effects on the peers of participants. This study estimates the direct and spillover effects of a gun violence field intervention in Chicago. Using a quasi-experimental design, we test whether a desistance-based programme reduced gunshot victimization among 2,349 participants. The study uses co-arrest network data to further test spillover effects on 6,132 non-participants. Direct effects were associated with a 3.2-percentage point reduction in victimization among seeds over two years, while potential spillover was associated with a 1.5-percentage point reduction among peers. Findings suggest that peer influence and the structure of networks might be leveraged to amplify gun violence reduction efforts.
AB - More than 60,000 people are victimized by gun violence each year in the United States. A large share of victims cluster in bounded and identifiable social networks. Despite a growing number of violence reduction programmes that leverage networks to broaden programmatic effects, there is little evidence that reductions in victimization are achieved through spillover effects on the peers of participants. This study estimates the direct and spillover effects of a gun violence field intervention in Chicago. Using a quasi-experimental design, we test whether a desistance-based programme reduced gunshot victimization among 2,349 participants. The study uses co-arrest network data to further test spillover effects on 6,132 non-participants. Direct effects were associated with a 3.2-percentage point reduction in victimization among seeds over two years, while potential spillover was associated with a 1.5-percentage point reduction among peers. Findings suggest that peer influence and the structure of networks might be leveraged to amplify gun violence reduction efforts.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41562-019-0688-1
DO - 10.1038/s41562-019-0688-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 31427787
AN - SCOPUS:85071223434
VL - 3
SP - 1164
EP - 1170
JO - Nature Human Behaviour
JF - Nature Human Behaviour
SN - 2397-3374
IS - 11
ER -