Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Mar;107(3):371-373.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303620. Epub 2017 Jan 19.

Quantifying Disparities in Urban Firearm Violence by Race and Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A Cartographic Study

Jessica H Beard  1 , Christopher N Morrison  1 , Sara F Jacoby  1 , Beidi Dong  1 , Randi Smith  1 , Carrie A Sims  1 , Douglas J Wiebe  1
Affiliations

Quantifying Disparities in Urban Firearm Violence by Race and Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: A Cartographic Study

Jessica H Beard et al. Am J Public Health. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

Objectives: To describe variability in the burden of firearm violence by race, income, and place in an urban context.

Methods: We used Philadelphia Police Department data from 2013 to 2014 to calculate firearm assault rates within census block groups for both victim residence and event locations, stratifying by race and block group income. We used cartographic modeling to determine variations in incidence of firearm assault by race, neighborhood income, and place.

Results: The overall rate of firearm assault was 5.0 times higher (95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.5, 5.6) for Black people compared with White people. Firearm assault rates were higher among Black people across all victim residence incomes. Relative risk of firearm assault reached 15.8 times higher (95% CI = 10.7, 23.2) for Black residents in the highest-income block groups when compared with high-income White individuals. Firearm assault events tended to occur in low-income areas and were concentrated in several "hot spot" locations with high proportions of Black residents.

Conclusions: Profound disparity in exposure to firearm violence by race and place exists in Philadelphia. Black people were substantially more likely than White people to sustain firearm assault, regardless of neighborhood income.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Christoffel KK. Firearm injuries: epidemic then, endemic now. Am J Public Health. 2007;97(4):626–629. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wintemute GJ. The epidemiology of firearm violence in the twenty-first century United States. Annu Rev Public Health. 2015;36:5–19. - PubMed
    1. Walker GN, McLone S, Mason M, Sheehan K. Rates of firearm homicide in Chicago by region, age, sex, and race/ethnicity, 2005-2010. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2016;81:S48–S53. - PubMed
    1. US Census Bureau. American FactFinder Web site. Available at: http://factfinder.census.gov. Accessed February 8, 2016.
    1. Kalesan B, Vyliparambil MA, Bogue E et al. Race and ethnicity, neighborhood poverty, and pediatric firearm hospitalizations in the United States. Ann Epidemiol. 2016;26(1):1–6. e1-2. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources