An investigation of the impact of the pandemic era on shooting victimizations in Detroit, Michigan

Despite the devastating effects of firearm violence on individuals, families, and communities, research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on firearm violence remains at a minimum. Our study contributes to this body of research by estimating the impact of two critical pandemic era timeframes on fatal and nonfatal shooting victimizations in Detroit, Michigan, using an innovative Bayesian Structural Time Series methodology. For each timeframe, we consider the impact of the pandemic era on total shooting victimizations, shooting victimizations that occurred at a residence (or at home), and shooting victimizations that occurred elsewhere. Our findings suggest that the pandemic era contributed to all three types of shooting victimizations in Detroit. We discuss the limitations of our study, along with directions for future research. Overall, we believe that our study underscores the importance of adopting a comprehensive and evidence-based strategy to prevent firearm-related fatalities and injuries. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Crime & Justice is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

What Members Need in Work Situations: Two Samples of Essential Managerial Leadership Behaviors: JMI

Violent incidents, terrorist attacks, senseless shootings, health issues such as the Coronavirus, and natural disasters call attention to managerial leadership in crisis situations. Yukl and Van Fleet (1982) did the seminal work on this topic extended by Peterson and Van Fleet (2008) and Peterson et al. (2012). More recently, Geier (2016) reported findings based on firefighters while Htway and Casteel (2015) and Kapucu and Ustun (2018) studied public sector organizations. Since these studies all involved nonprofit organizations, an extension to for-profit organizations is warranted. There are differences between profit organizations and not-for-profit organizations (Collins, 2001;Collins, 2005). Because of the goals involved, there may be differences in the managerial leadership behaviors required by these types of organizations. Hannah and Parry (2013) specifically recommend expanding leadership research to many different extreme situations in an effort to understand different managerial leadership behaviors that adapt to varying crisis situations. Two samples reported here identify the critical managerial leadership behaviors desired by for-profit organizational participants in both stable and crisis situations. Finally, implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.

Love of Empire by Dissociations

In the past two years, as the whole world has been deeply mired in the COVID-19 pandemic, we may have observed neoliberal capitalism's crisis of care: exposed and exacerbated by the global pandemic, made explicit alongside examples such as the collapsing of health systems, the shortage of care labor and overwork of nurses, the serious outbreaks in aged care facilities, the increased burden of domestic labor and care work due to school closures, and the worldwide rise of domestic abuse. Feminist calls for economic independence for (mostly middle-class) women to work for equal pay as men certainly do not resolve the care problem but, instead, further obscure colonial divisions of labor under which the racialized labor mostly from formerly colonized nations is made to fill up the gap.2 I consider the discursive formations of love as a point of departure to review how the global pandemic bears on our everyday practices of intimacy. The historical effects of racialized displacement can be seen as consisting of three sets of often-dissociated social relations during the pandemic crisis: archetypical angel-heroines in white (nurses), angels in the house (housewife and mother), and fallen angels (prostitutes).3 During the pandemic, many of us constantly experience fears about the health systems being overwhelmed, even while we express growing appreciation for the essential care provided by health workers. The virus eventually spread to the teahouses of Taipei's Wanhua neighborhood—also known as an adult entertainment red-light district in Taipei. Since Wanhua was reported as the center of a major cluster, the workers in the sexual venues, in particular, became a singularized target of public criticism.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on mass shootings in six major US cities.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has significant impacts on the US socioeconomic structure. Gun violence is a major public health issue and the effects on this area have not been well-elucidated. The objective of this study was to determine the impacts of the pandemic on mass shootings in six major United States cities with historically high rates of gun violence. METHODS: Mass shooting data were extracted from an open-source database, Gun Violence Archive. Mass shooting was defined as four or more people shot at a single event. Data from six cities with the highest incidence of mass shootings were analyzed in 2019 versus 2020 (Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and St. Louis). Geographic data were examined to assess changes in each city's mass shooting geographic distribution over time. Quantitative changes were assessed using the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), and qualitative data were assessed using ArcGIS. RESULTS: In 2020, the overall percentage of mass shootings increased by 46.7% though there was no change in the distribution of these events when assessed quantitatively (no change in average ADI) nor qualitatively (using ArcGIS). In the six cities analyzed, the total proportion of mass shooting events was unchanged during the pandemic (21.8% vs 20.6%, p = 0.64). Chicago, the US city with the highest incidence of mass shootings, did not experience a significant change in 2020 (n = 34/91, 37.3% vs. n = 53/126, 42.1%, p = 0.57). Baltimore had a significant decrease in mass shooting events (n = 18/91, 19.8% vs. 10/126, 7.9%, p = 0.01). The other four cities had no significant change in the number of mass shootings (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: This study is the first to use ArcGIS technology to describe the patterns of mass shooting in six major US cities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of mass shootings in six US cities remained largely unchanged which suggests that changes in mass shootings is likely occurring in smaller cities. Future studies should focus on the changing patterns of homicides in at-risk communities and other possible social influences.

COVID-19 and Gun Violence: Keeping Unknown Shocks and Volatility in Perspective

The current study estimates the varying effects of the pandemic on gun violence by social distancing type, fatality, and location. Interrupted time series analyses are used to examine weekly crime data from 2016 to 2020 in New York City. Box-Cox power transformation and GARCH techniques are used to address the problems of non-normality and heteroscedasticity in the models. There were significant increases in fatal and non-fatal shootings during the relaxation of social distancing. The impact of the BLM protests and depolicing is significant for non-fatal shootings. The pandemic led to greater increases in gun violence in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, as opposed to Staten Island. In addition, there is some evidence of increases in the volatility of gun violence during the pandemic. High volatility implies crime rates are in severe flux, which then leads to greater uncertainty and fear for public safety. This paper surfaces useful information for guiding policy and practice.

When COVID-19 and guns meet: A rise in shootings.

OBJECTIVE: The present study examines the impact of the COVID-19 stay-at-home order on gun violence in Buffalo, New York: fatal shootings, all non-fatal shootings, non-fatal shootings with injury, and non-fatal shootings without injury. It also estimated its impact on gang and non-gang related shootings. METHODS: Weekly crime data are analyzed at the city level using ARIMA and poisson models. Forecasting is used to verify the validity of both ARIMA and poisson models. RESULTS: The effect of the pandemic was conditional upon the types of gun violence and impact models of intervention. The pandemic caused a temporary increase in fatal shootings while leading to a long-term increase in all non-fatal shootings, non-fatal shootings with injury, non-fatal shootings without injury, and gang related shootings. CONCLUSIONS: The pandemic has changed the volume of gun violence possibly due to increased strain and/or changed routine activities. This study not only promotes further research but also has policy implications for public health and safety. From a public policy perspective, criminal justice agencies should focus more attention and resources on gun violence resulting from a sense of strain and fear among individuals during the pandemic.

A new wave of mass shootings? Exploring the potential impact of COVID-19

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has brought much of U.S. society to a grinding halt, its impact on the occurrence of mass shootings is largely unknown. Using data from the Gun Violence Archive and an interrupted time-series design, we analyzed weekly counts of mass shootings in the U.S. from 2019 through 2021. Results show that total, private, and public mass shootings increased following the declaration of COVID-19 as a national emergency in March of 2020. We consider these findings in the context of their broader implications for prevention efforts as well as how they pave the way for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

An Examination of US School Mass Shootings, 2017-2022: Findings and Implications.

Objectives: Gun violence in the USA is a pressing social and public health issue. As rates of gun violence continue to rise, deaths resulting from such violence rise as well. School shootings, in particular, are at their highest recorded levels. In this study, we examined rates of intentional firearm deaths, mass shootings, and school mass shootings in the USA using data from the past 5 years, 2017-2022, to assess trends and reappraise prior examination of this issue. Methods: Extant data regarding shooting deaths from 2017 through 2020 were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the web-based injury statistics query and reporting system (WISQARS), and, for school shootings in particular (2017-2022), from Everytown Research & Policy. Results: The number of intentional firearm deaths and the crude death rates increased from 2017 to 2020 in all age categories; crude death rates rose from 4.47 in 2017 to 5.88 in 2020. School shootings made a sharp decline in 2020-understandably so, given the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent government or locally mandated school shutdowns-but rose again sharply in 2021. Conclusions: Recent data suggest continued upward trends in school shootings, school mass shootings, and related deaths over the past 5 years. Notably, gun violence disproportionately affects boys, especially Black boys, with much higher gun deaths per capita for this group than for any other group of youth. Implications for policy and practice are provided.

Violence in the Big Apple throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: A borough-specific analysis.

In early 2020, the world faced a rapid, life-changing, public health crisis in the form of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic and its associated social-distancing measures collided with a period of social unrest following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and persisted for nearly two years following its emergence. The current study adds to existing research by examining the effect of these events on the incidence of violence (shootings and assaults) in New York City (NYC) over a longer period of time, both in the city as a whole and at the borough-level. To accomplish this, the current study draws from publicly available data using series of analytical techniques to account for underlying trends, seasonality, and temperature while also estimating borough-specific effects. Results indicate that the prevalence of COVID-19 cases, associated social-distancing mandates, and the period of social unrest following Floyd's murder were associated with violence in NYC. Further, findings suggest while a number of the factors explored had consistent effects across each of NYC's five boroughs there was some evidence of heterogeneity. The implications for future research on the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.

An investigation of the impact of the pandemic era on shooting victimizations in Detroit, Michigan

Despite the devastating effects of firearm violence on individuals, families, and communities, research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on firearm violence remains at a minimum. Our study contributes to this body of research by estimating the impact of two critical pandemic era timeframes on fatal and nonfatal shooting victimizations in Detroit, Michigan, using an innovative Bayesian Structural Time Series methodology. For each timeframe, we consider the impact of the pandemic era on total shooting victimizations, shooting victimizations that occurred at a residence (or at home), and shooting victimizations that occurred elsewhere. Our findings suggest that the pandemic era contributed to all three types of shooting victimizations in Detroit. We discuss the limitations of our study, along with directions for future research. Overall, we believe that our study underscores the importance of adopting a comprehensive and evidence-based strategy to prevent firearm-related fatalities and injuries. [ FROM AUTHOR]

How Community-Based Participatory Research Can Thrive in Virtual Spaces: Connecting Through Photovoice

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many qualitative and community-engaged researchers had to quickly shift from collecting data in person to utilizing virtual spaces. The foundation of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is authentic engagement and the establishment of trust between community and academic partners. We conducted a photovoice project that typically involves in-person sessions and revamped the process to be conducted virtually. The purpose of this article is to share how we navigated the process of conducting a virtual photovoice project with Black and white parents that explored parenting during the concurrent structural racism reckoning and COVID-19 pandemic, as well as share lessons learned. Despite the rapid shift from an in-person to virtual process, we were able to have an engaging conversation with participants that aligned with the core tenants of CBPR. Additionally, we overcame challenges through: (1) allotting extra time for unforeseen issues;(2) incorporating multiple activities to build trust and connection for participant-participant and participant-facilitator relationships;and (3) maintaining flexibility to meet the needs of the group. Ultimately, we learned several lessons through this project that may be applicable to community-engaged researchers deciding between conducting qualitative projects through traditional means or exploring alternative virtual options.

Exploring the Contagion Effect of Social Media on Mass Shootings

Social media plays a prominent role in the spread of mass shootings. It brought about a significant contagious effect on future similar incidents. Therefore, we explore Machine Learning (ML) models to forecast the change in the public’s attitudes about mass shootings on social media over time. These ML models include Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression (LR), and the optimized Deep Neural Networks based on an Improved Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (IPSO-DNN). We then propose a self-excited contagion model to predict the number of mass shootings by focusing on the spread of public attitudes on Twitter. Moreover, we also improve the proposed contagion model with the consideration of social distancing and the daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases, to predict and analyze mass shootings under the COVID-19 pandemic. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed contagion models perform very well in predicting future mass shootings in the United States.

A Closer Look at the Rising Epidemic of Mass Shootings in the United States and Its Association With Gun Legislation, Laws, and Sales.

INTRODUCTION: Mass shootings pose a considerable threat to public safety and significantly cost the United States in terms of lives and expenses. The following are the specific aims of this study: (1) to assess US mass shootings, firearm-related sales, laws, and regional differences from 2015 to 2021 and (2) to investigate changes in mass shootings and firearm sales before and during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. METHODS: A retrospective review was conducted of mass shootings, gun sales, and laws regarding the minimum age required to purchase a firearm within the United States from 2015 to 2021. The 10 states/regions with the greatest mean mass shootings/capita from 2015 to 2021 were selected for further analysis. RESULTS: Mass shootings correlated significantly with firearm sales from 2015 to 2021 nationwide (P < 0.02 for all). The growth in mass shootings, the number killed/injured, and gun sales were greater in 2020 and 2021 compared to the years prior. The 10 states with the highest mean mass shooting/capita over the study period were Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, and Tennessee. No significant correlation was found between the number of mass shootings/capita and the minimum age to purchase a firearm. CONCLUSIONS: Firearm sales correlated significantly with mass shootings from 2015 to 2021. Mass shootings and gun sales increased at greater rates during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic compared to the years before the pandemic. Mass shootings exhibited inconsistent trends with state gun laws regarding the minimum age to purchase a firearm. Future studies may consider investigating the methods by which firearms used in mass shootings are obtained to further identify targets for prevention.

NOWHERE TO GO: ANTI-ASIAN HATE CRIMES IN 1945 AND TODAY

Higuchi asserts that Iyekichi Higuchi prepared to leave the Heart Mountain camp for Japanese Americans in May 1945 to return to San Jose, California, look for a home for his wife and two at-home children, and to find a job. He had been forced to sell his 14.25-acre home in San Jose three years earlier when the federal government had forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast because of hysteria about the alleged security threat they posed in the days following the 7 December 1941, Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. What faced those returning Japanese Americans mirrors the hate crimes now facing Americans of Asian descent who are blamed for spreading the COVID-19 virus that originally started in China to the United States. Since the pandemic took over in March, thousands of Asian Americans have been accosted in public spaces, spit on or assaulted and told to go back where they came from, even if that was not Asia at all.

The impact of COVID-19 on the spatial distribution of shooting violence in Buffalo, NY.

OBJECTIVES: This paper examines the extent to which hotspots of shooting violence changed following the emergence of COVID-19. METHODS: This analysis uses Andresen's Spatial Point Pattern test on 1500 by 1500 foot grid cells, correcting for multiple comparisons, on a 10-year sample of geocoded shooting data from Buffalo New York. RESULTS: This work finds zero micro-grid cells are not statistically different from pre to post COVID stay at home orders and instead that the observed rise in shootings in the sample appears to be a consistent proportional increase across the city. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide law enforcement with useful information about how to respond to the recent rise in shooting violence, but additional work is needed to better understand what, among a number of competing theories, is driving the increase. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11292-021-09497-4.

Political Perversion: Rhetorical Aberration in the Time of Trumpeteering

Political perversion is structural perversion on dehumanizing steroids as opposed to the normal/ common/universal kind. [...]when Trumpian perversion is understood as a structurally "stylized habit" or "patterned disposition" of relating to civic infrastructures/relevant others, it translates into a "structured disavowal of consensus reality at the core of a political ecology, which is both exacerbated and exposed by speakers, screens, and (communicative) speed" (pp. 5-81). Gunn suggests that when playfulness assumes the form of "dirty work," as is the case in political perversion, everyday communicative habits devolve into a state of irresponsible refutations, compulsive defenses, and denials such as saying: "'If [Hilary Clinton] gets to pick her [Supreme Court] judges,' Trump belched, 'there's nothing you can do, folks. [...]a slow brewing, perverse haunting emerges in the most recent, predominantly Republican and far-right conservative led demo-nization of 'critical race theory' in the U.S. (Schuessler, 2021).

Instances of School Shootings are Down, Now What: A Review of Trauma Frameworks for Public School Use

Public school shootings in the U.S. have increased over the past few decades. Trauma related to these events is leading to many conversations concerning ways to manage its effects in the aftermath of school shootings. Current research on how public schools can effectively address the trauma and trauma-related symptomology from public school shootings is varied. With a marked decrease in school shootings related to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a unique opportunity to explore solutions and reopen schools with improved trauma plans presents itself. Three trauma frameworks are explored for relevant and informed solutions that can be used as a resource for addressing the effects of trauma and aiding traumatized individuals in moving forward following a school shooting. Implications of this discussion include benefits to survivors of school shootings and applicability to trauma survivors in general.

Structural competency and the future of firearm research.

In this critical literature review we develop a five-part agenda for pandemic-era research into mass shootings and multiple-victim homicides that promotes understanding the psychologies of individual shooters within larger structures and systems. We show how the momentous events set in motion by the COVID-19 virus, and the structural drivers of inequity and racism that its spread exposed, challenge mental health research on gun trauma to better account for broader terrains of race and place, as well as the tensions, politics, and assumptions that surround guns in the U.S. more broadly. Doing so will broaden mental-health interventions into epidemics of U.S. gun trauma, and challenge mental health research better recognize structural biases inherent in its own purview. We frame the agenda through the rubric of structural competency, an emerging framework that systematically trains health care professionals and others to recognize ways that institutions, neighborhood conditions, market forces, public policies, and health care delivery systems shape symptoms and diseases. Developing a structural framework around research into U.S. gun violence addresses the risks, traumas, meanings, and consequences that firearms represent for all communities-and highlights the importance of a renewed focus on mental health and safety for communities of color. Recognizing how gun violence reflects and encapsulates structures helps mental health experts address common sense gun policies within broader contexts-by fighting against structural racism or racially inflected gun policies for instance, or against economic policies that undermine access to mental health care more broadly.