Not so Simple: Examining the Gendered Nature of Intimate Partner Assault Victimizations.

Although prior research has established a relationship between neighborhood structure and intimate partner violence (IPV), much of this literature focuses on serious IPV, despite the fact that less serious forms of IPV comprise the majority of IPV instances. Further, women are far more likely to experience all types of IPV victimization relative to men, especially simple assault, yet the relative importance of neighborhood structure across gradations of IPV and victim sex is relatively unexplored. We use data from Los Angeles, CA, and disaggregate IPV assaults across victim sex to examine whether neighborhood factors have differential effects on simple and aggravated IPV. We find differential effects of neighborhood structure by victim sex, especially for simple assault. Most notably, we find that neighborhood racial composition has significantly greater effects on females relative to male victims of simple IPV assault, while residential stability is protective of women more so than men. Only the percent of vacant or owner-occupied housing was specific to male simple IPV victimization. This suggests that neighborhood-based interventions should differ depending on the type of IPV being targeted.

Using social network analysis to examine gun violence.

Research has found gun violence is a social contagion that spreads from one individual to another. To understand the social networks of violence, previous research has used social network analysis, a tool that explores the relationships between social actors. Most of the prior research uses coarrest data and incident reports to produce social networks. The current study incorporates the use of an underused data source, ballistic evidence, to better understand gun violence. The aim was to identify drivers of gun violence and to examine network concentration. Specifically, National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) leads and associated criminal incidents in combination with all incident reports were collected from a large urban county in the Pacific Northwest between 2015 and 2017. Social network analysis was conducted to produce a NIBIN network to demonstrate the connections between incidents where the same firearm was used. Social network analysis was also conducted to identify individuals who were the most involved in gun violence. Results reveal gun violence is very interconnected as many of the same firearms were discharged in multiple different incidents with several other individuals involved, indicating a connection between these individuals. This demonstrates the utility of using ballistic evidence beyond using only incident and coarrest data because it provides more information that directly relates to gun violence and the transfer of guns. Additionally, this can be very useful for law enforcement agencies to identify who is integral in the gun violence networks that can be helpful for prevention and intervention strategies.