New University of Chicago research led by third-year student Thomas Statchen and published in JAMA Network Open showing a link between eviction rates and shooting incidents in Chicago has garnered local attention with a feature from the city’s NPR affiliate WBEZ.
The study “Eviction, Collective Efficacy, and Firearm Violence in Chicago,” conducted with senior author and associate professor of medicine Elizabeth Tung, MD, MS, analyzed survey data from the city’s Healthy Chicago Survey, Cook County eviction records, and shooting data from the Chicago Police Department to identify 2.66 additional shootings associated with every 1 percent increase in eviction rate in a particular census tract. Statchen started this research as a participant in the Pritzker Summer Research Program and has continued it as part of the Scholarship & Discovery component of the Pritzker curriculum.
“It was surprising to see such a strong relationship” Statchen told WBEZ. “When we think about firearm violence, it’s all about, ‘How can we prevent this?’ We can think about things like reducing evictions… as a structural factor that can allow us to reduce [gun] violence directly.”
Read an in-depth story by the BSD on this research here.
The research, which was highlighted on air during WBEZ’s Morning Edition program Thursday morning and nationally on NPR, also found that individuals who had personally experienced eviction were also likely to have experienced 1.04 shootings near their homes. It also showed eviction rates were most concentrated on the South and West Sides of Chicago, ranging from 0-5 percent compared to less than 1 percent for most census areas.
Statchen and Tung noted in their interviews with WBEZ that the findings point to a structural factor typically less prominent in conversations about how to prevent gun violence. WBEZ also spoke to Mary Gilbert, Legal & Policy Director at the Chicago nonprofit Law Center for Better Housing, who highlighted policies to reduce eviction rates that could ultimately reduce violence.
“It’s all about stabilizing communities,” Gilbert said. “Any kind of measure about stabilizing housing, stabilizing our neighborhoods, is going to reduce violence.”
Read the complete study in JAMA Network Open here.