Youth Exposure to Endemic Community Gun Violence: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Community gun violence persists as a daily reality for many youth in low-income urban communities. While most gun violence research has focused on the direct victims of firearm homicide, exploration into the broader public health repercussions of community gun violence on youth has lagged. This systematic review aimed to synthesize and critically assess the state of evidence on indirect exposure to community gun violence among low-income urban youth in the U.S. PubMed, Web of Science, ProQuest, and SCOPUS were searched for peer-reviewed articles exploring the scope, risk factors, and impacts of community gun violence exposure on this population. Of the 143 studies identified and screened, 13 studies were ultimately included. The broad themes emerging include (1) a lack of consensus regarding the range of experiences that constitute community gun violence, (2) exposure to violence involving a firearm as distinct from that with other weapons, (3) a need to conceptualize multiple dimensions of gun violence exposure, (4) differential impacts of exposure to community gun violence across developmental stages, and (5) how indirect gun violence exposure uniquely contributes to cycles of community violence. Future research must move toward a consistent typology, multidimensional conceptualization, and developmental- and context-specific examination of community gun violence exposure.