A new statistical analysis in Injury Prevention found an association between county-level income inequality and the number of firearm deaths per 100,000 residents. Higher rates of firearm homicides were statistically linked to greater income disparity, they highlighted that this was especially persistent among African-American populations, where the firearm homicide rate was almost 10 percent higher for every 0.04 greater value of the Gini index, a common measure of income inequality.
The authors say the source of the problem is income inequality, so presumably government needs to close the gap, perhaps in a Green New Deal where the rich pay more and people who don't earn as much - or choose not to work at all - will get that wealth redistributed to them to buy organic food or something. Groups opposed to affordable housing - using subsidies to put poor families in wealthier neighborhoods - instead argue that it is trouble waiting to happen. For families in poverty, community social networks are not there but poverty still is and since most criminal acts are local, crime increases if criminals who could otherwise not afford to live in a wealthy area suddenly do.
“This study examines the distribution of county-level income inequality and the magnitude of its association with gun homicide rates. These findings aim to help shift the underlying societal forces that produce, fuel, or sustain violence at the population level,” said lead author and Associate Professor of Epidemiology Ali Rowhani-Rahbar.
Rowhani-Rahbar and his colleagues from the UW Department of Epidemiology, including assistant professor Anjum Hajat, adjunct professor Frederick Rivara, alumnus Duane Alexander Quistberg, and current doctoral student Erin Morgan used U.S. Census data from 1990 and 2000 to look at the distribution of income in 3,106 counties to create a Gini index.
The team hypothesized that the stresses on a community from income inequality are felt over time, so they chose to analyze the association with firearm homicide rates between 5 and 15 years after their measures of income inequality. Using the All-county Mortality Microdata maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers looked at the firearm homicide deaths rates between 2005 and 2015, specifically at individuals between the ages of 14 and 39, an age group with the highest firearm homicide rate in the United States.
Income inequality has increased in the United States since the late 1970s. Previous research has found that greater income inequality is associated with higher levels of stress and crime, declining trust in others, and a decrease in social capital or networks of people, such as church groups and neighborhood associations.
“This study adds to the existing body of literature on the negative consequences of income inequality,” Rowhani-Rahbar said. “We need to promote policies that help close the gap between the rich and the poor, which may also have the potential to reduce firearm violence.”
