Social and Structural Determinants of Community Firearm Violence and Community Trauma

• Published date: 01 November 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231173324
• Author: Shani A. L. Buggs,Nicole D. Kravitz-Wirtz,Julia J. Lund
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Opportunities for Gun Violence Prevention

224 ANNALS, AAPSS, 704, November 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162231173324

Social and

Structural

Determinants

of Community

Firearm

Violence and

Community

Trauma

By

SHANI A. L. BUGGS,

NICOLE D. KRAVITZ-

WIRTZ,

and

JULIA J. LUND

1173324ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYCOMMUNITY FIREARM VIOLENCE AND COMMUNITY TRAUMA

research-article2023

The adverse impacts of community firearm violence in

the U.S. are unequally felt across geographic and vari-

ous sociodemographic segments of our population.

Researchers, government leaders, and the general

public need to contend with the various ways in which

unjust socioeconomic and political forces and systems

of power and privilege lead to differences in risk expo-

sure among population groups, as well as differences in

the extent to which various segments of the population

are protected from the adverse effects of firearm vio-

lence. We highlight dozens of studies to illustrate how

firearm violence and community trauma in the U.S. can

be more effectively addressed when a “social and struc-

tural determinants” perspective is used to understand

and respond to this public health problem.

Keywords: firearm violence; community violence;

community trauma; structural determi-

nants of health; racial capitalism; health

equity

Introduction

The burden of firearm violence in the U.S. is

significant and among the highest in the world

compared with other similarly large and wealthy

countries, despite unparalleled spending on

policing, imprisonment, and curative medical

care (Stemen 2017; Wager, Ortaliza, and Cox

Correspondence: sabuggs@ucdavis.edu

Shani A. L. Buggs is a public health and policy

researcher with the Violence Prevention Research

Program and the California Firearm Violence Research

Center at the University of California, Davis. Through

her research on community-driven safety, she strives to

inform policies that facilitate health equity and well-

being for all families and communities.

Nicole D. Kravitz-Wirtz is a population health sociolo-

gist with the Violence Prevention Research Program

and the California Firearm Violence Research Center

at UC Davis. Her research aims to understand the

social ecology of places to foster equitable, community-

centered policies and practices for improving the health

of people and communities impacted by violence.

COMMUNITY FIREARM VIOLENCE AND COMMUNITY TRAUMA 225

2022). All communities are affected (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

2020; Kaufman et al. 2021; The Global Burden of Disease 2016 Injury

Collaborators 2018). Yet the consequences of firearm violence in the U.S., espe-

cially community firearm violence, are unevenly borne, with minoritized and

marginalized communities, and particularly Black adolescents and young adults,

shouldering the greatest toll of death, injury, and resultant trauma. Community

firearm violence is defined as interpersonal firearm violence, including firearm

homicide, between non–intimately related parties (Bancalari, Sommer, and

Rajan 2022). Firearm homicide is the third leading cause of death for all young

people ages 15 to 24, but it is the second leading cause of death for Black girls

and young women and the leading cause of death for Black boys and young men,

who in 2020 made up <1 percent of the population but accounted for nearly one

in five (18 percent) firearm homicides (Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention 2020).

The disproportionate impacts of community firearm violence within racially

and economically segregated neighborhoods do not arise passively (Galea and

Vaughan 2021) or in a vacuum. Rather, they are rooted in historical and present-

day structural racism and other oppressive systems of power and marginalization

that create and concentrate inequitable community conditions of numerous risk

factors associated with interpersonal violence (e.g., poverty, unemployment and

underemployment, grief and loss, and disinvestment in basic requisites of life) and

few protective factors associated with safety (e.g., high-quality and accessible edu-

cation, housing, and economic and workforce opportunities) (Prevention Institute

and Big Cities Health Coalition 2021). This enduring inequity has been exacer-

bated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reinforced unequal systems of

support and intensified the destabilizing conditions where interpersonal violence

becomes more likely. The pandemic also coincided with massive increases in fire-

arm sales and availability (Rivara, Vars, and Rowhani-Rahbar 2021), which have

been linked in prior research to subsequent increases in firearm injury rates

(Laqueur et al. 2019). Dozens of U.S. cities, large and small, experienced record

surges in community firearm homicide in 2020, with the greatest increases occur-

ring in low-income Black and Brown communities (Kegler et al. 2022; Rosenfeld

and Lopez 2020). While the rate of increase has slowed (Simon et al. 2022), ele-

vated levels of firearm homicide have persisted as disruptions to pre-pandemic

patterns of individual and community life have continued.

As devastating as firearm homicide is, it captures only a fraction of the reach

and harm of this enduring public health problem. A nationally representative

survey administered in 2013 to 2014, when rates of firearm violence were rela-

tively low, estimated that approximately 8 percent of children and teens and 13

percent of the subset of those ages 14 to 17 reported hearing gunshots or seeing

someone shot over their lifetime (Finkelhor et al. 2015). One study among com-

munities highly impacted by structural disinvestment and interpersonal violence

Julia J. Lund is a research data analyst with the Violence Prevention Research Program and

the California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis. She utilizes interdisciplinary

and mixed methods to understand the structural drivers of violence and support community-

driven approaches to safety and wellness.