Beyond residential and extra-local spaces: Gun violence exposure in urban neighbourhood mobility networks

Abstract

Gun violence is one of the leading causes of premature death in the United States. While research examining the impact of gun violence has focused on direct victimisation, exposure within residential communities experiencing gun violence is consequential. However, exposure is not a spatially bounded process, as residents spend significant time outside of their neighbourhoods and travel to neighbourhoods both near and far. As such, a more complete portrait of gun violence exposure must consider this higher-order, neighbourhood network. Using 2018–2019 mobile phone data from SafeGraph, I construct neighbourhood networks based on daily mobility flows for the 100 largest US metropolitan areas. I compare neighbourhood gun violence exposure in the residential neighbourhood, the neighbourhoods bordering the residential neighbourhood, and the non-residential and non-adjacent neighbourhoods visited by residents. I find that gun violence exposure is greater in visited neighbourhoods compared to home and adjacent neighbourhoods, most metro areas exhibit either greater or equal exposure in visited neighbourhoods relative to home neighbourhoods, Black neighbourhoods exhibit greater gun violence exposure across all scales, and segregation increases gun violence exposure in neighbourhood networks for Black, Hispanic and mixed racial/ethnic neighbourhoods.