scholarly journals Neighborhood variation in unsolved homicides: a retrospective cohort study in Indianapolis, Indiana, 2007–2017

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren A. Magee ◽  
J. Dennis Fortenberry ◽  
Wanzhu Tu ◽  
Sarah E. Wiehe
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Clearance Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Clearance Rates ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Homicide Clearance ◽  
Community Disorder ◽  
Homicide Case

Abstract Background Homicide is a widely acknowledged public health problem in the United States. The majority of homicides are committed with a firearm and have long-term health consequences for family members and entire communities. When left unsolved, violence may be perpetuated due to the retaliatory nature of homicides. Improving homicide clearance rates may help prevent future violence, however, we know little about the community-level social dynamics associated with unsolved homicides. Methods This study examines the individual-and-community-level social processes associated with low homicide clearance rates in Indianapolis, Indiana between 2007 and 2017. Homicide clearance is the primary outcome, defined as if a perpetrator was arrested for that homicide case between 2007 and 2017. Individual-level variables include the victim’s race/ethnicity, sex, and age. Community-level (i.e., census tracts) variables include the number of resident complaints against the police, resident complains of community disorder, income inequality, number of police interactions, and proportion of African American residents. Results In Indianapolis over a 11-year period, the homicide clearance rate decreased to a low of 38% in 2017, compared to a national clearance rate of 60%. Homicide case clearance was less likely for minority (OR 0.566; 95% CI, 0.407–0.787; p < 0.01) and male (OR 0.576; 95% CI, 0.411–0.807; p < 0.01) victims. Resident complaints of community disorder were associated with a decreased odds of case clearance (OR 0.687; 95% CI, 0.485–0.973; p < .01)., African American victim’s cases were less likely to be cleared in 2014–2017 (OR 0.640; 95% CI, 0.437–0.938; p < 0.05), compared to 2007. Conclusions Our study identified differences in neighborhood social processes associated with homicide clearance, indicating existing measures on these community factors are complex. Programs aimed at improving signs of community disorder and building community engagement may improve neighborhood clearance rates, lower violence, and improve the health of these communities.

Differences in Mortality Rates of Gunshot Victims: The Influence of Neighborhood Social Processes

2021 ◽  
pp. 108876792110471
Author(s):  
Lauren A. Magee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Firearm Violence ◽  
Geographic Differences ◽  
Physical Features

Firearm violence is considered a public health crisis in the United States. Firearm violence spatially concentrates within neighborhoods and is associated with community factors; however, little is understood about the geographic differences in gunshot wound mortality and associated neighborhood social processes. Applying a public health approach through the Haddon’s Matrix, the results demonstrate systematic differences in social and physical features associated with gunshot mortality. These findings have important implications to improve neighborhood physical and social conditions, police transporting gunshot victims, and police-public health partnerships to improve data collection on nonfatal shootings and shots fired.

Examining the Clearance Rates of Violent and Non-Violent Offences in the United States: A Trend Analysis, 2011–2018

2020 ◽  
pp. 0306624X2094468
Author(s):  
Avdi S. Avdija ◽  
Arif Akgul
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Trend Analysis ◽  
Clearance Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local State ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Clearance Rates ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Violent Offenses

The main objective of this study was to examine the clearance rates of violent and non-violent offenses in the United States for the years 2011 to 2018. This study focused specifically on the differences in clearance rates of incidents involving crimes against persons, crimes against property, and crimes against society. The analyses are based on the FBI’s NIBRS data that have been reported by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies for 8 years combined. The analyses focused on the characteristics of the distribution of clearance rates by the types of incidents. The clearance rates were calculated based on the number of incidents that were cleared by arrest or exceptional means. The results show that the average clearance rate for incidents involving crimes against persons is 48.6%, for incidents involving property crimes is 18%, and for incidents involving crimes against society is 78%. The trend analyses show that the clearance rates are gradually decreasing for all three types of offense categories.

Understanding Differences in Types of Opioid Prescriptions Across Time and Space: A Community-Level Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy L. Anderson ◽  
Xiaoke Zhang ◽  
Steven S. Martin ◽  
Yiqian Fang ◽  
Jiamin Li
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Prescribing Patterns ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Community Factors ◽  
Census Tract Level ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Level Analysis

For the better part of the 21st century, opioid abuse and related consequences have beleaguered the United States. Effectively fighting the crisis may require a better understanding of potential differences among the types of opioids available as treating them as one homogeneous group may mask emerging trends and conflate more benign ones with those more troubling. The purpose of our study is to investigate changes in prescribing patterns of four groups of opioids (hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl, and other) and how community-level factors explain their variation over time. We use a census tract–level data set with population, concentrated disadvantage, and prescription drug monitoring payment variables to address our goals. Findings show disparate prescribing patterns among the four types of opioids and considerable differences in the community factors that predict their change. Implications for future research and interventions follow.

Merle’s travel: A Quest For Completeness In Paule Marshall’s The chosen place, the timeless people.

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-42
Author(s):  
Dr. K. Radah ◽  
G. Gayathri
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Social Context ◽  
African American Women ◽  
African American Woman ◽  
American Woman ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
True Self ◽  
American Women ◽  
Human Need

African American women have been silenced and kept ignorant by the dominant culture and it is the human need to create and maintain a true self in a social context. However, such an endeavor becomes an ordeal for those who are doubly oppressed, for those who are muted and mutilated physically and psychically through the diabolic crossfire of caste/race, sex and colonialism. This paper focuses on, an African American Woman, throughout her journey of life, seeking completeness in terms of family, society and community level.

Religion, Race, and Humanism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony B. Pinn
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Richard Wright ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unitarian Universalist ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lorraine Hansberry

This chapter explores the history of humanism within African American communities. It positions humanist thinking and humanism-inspired activism as a significant way in which people of African descent in the United States have addressed issues of racial injustice. Beginning with critiques of theism found within the blues, moving through developments such as the literature produced by Richard Wright, Lorraine Hansberry, and others, to political activists such as W. E. B. DuBois and A. Philip Randolph, to organized humanism in the form of African American involvement in the Unitarian Universalist Association, African Americans for Humanism, and so on, this chapter presents the historical and institutional development of African American humanism.

scholarly journals Structural Violence of Schooling: A Genealogy of a Critical Family History of Three Generations of African American Women in a Rural Community in Florida

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Evelyn Newman Phillips ◽  
Wangari Gichiru
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Family History ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
American Women ◽  
Three Generations ◽  
American Children

Through the lens of structural violence, Black feminism and critical family history, this paper explores how societal structures informed by white supremacy shaped the lives of three generations of rural African American women in a family in Florida during the middle to the late twentieth century. Specifically, this study investigates how disparate funding, segregation, desegregation, poverty and post-desegregation policies shaped and limited the achievement trajectories among these women. Further, an oral historical examination of their lives reveals the strategies they employed despite their under-resourced and sometimes alienating schooling. The paper highlights the experiences of the Newman family, descendants of captive Africans in the United States that produced three college-educated daughters and a granddaughter despite structural barriers that threatened their progress. Using oral history interviews, archival resources and first-person accounts, this family’s story reveals a genealogy of educational achievement, barriers and agency despite racial and gendered limitations in a Southern town. The findings imply that their schooling mirrors many of the barriers that other Blacks face. However, this study shows that community investment in African American children, plus teachers that affirm students, and programs such as Upward Bound, help to advance Black students in marginalized communities. Further, these women’s lives suggest that school curriculums need to be anti-racist and public policies that affirm each person regardless of the color of their skin. A simple solution that requires the structural violence of whiteness be eliminated from the schooling spheres.

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