Spatial Networks of Neighborhood Violence

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Grant details

Deanship of Scientific Research at Northern Border University, Arar, KSA for funding this research work and the ESRC/NordForsk Life at the Frontier project (Project Number: 95193).

Project start and end dates

Jan 2020 to March 2021

Research team members

Background and aims of the project

This project explores the co-movement of neighborhood violence in Chicago. It challenges the traditional concept of neighborhoods as isolated units and highlights the importance of considering neighborhoods as nodes in a larger network of spatial relations. We utilize network theory and statistical network methods to understand the factors that link neighborhoods in the co-movement of crime trends. Three mechanisms for interdependencies between neighbourhoods are examined: spatial proximity, shared underlying characteristics associated with violence, and flows of movement across neighborhoods.

Methods

Social network analysis: Exponential Random Graph Models

Key findings to date

We find that, whilst spatial proximity of neighbourhoods plays a role, other factors such as socioeconomic proximity (similarity of neighbourhoods in terms of their socioeconomic attributes) and people flows between neighbourhoods, contribute significantly to the formation of co-movement networks for shooting incidents. The policy implication of our work is that a focus on the violence levels in one neighborhood may be insufficient to reduce its rates of violence if connections to other neighborhoods are overlooked.