Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes vita. Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 47 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Jay Corzine. Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-137).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2009. / Adviser: Lin Huff-Corzine. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-201).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-99). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.W.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 168-173). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Exposure to community gun violence is increasing a sense of anxiety and hypervigilance in American society today. Whether or not they are direct victims, American children and adolescents often become casualties of community gun violence. Their safety, well-being, and even survival are at risk due to continued exposure to gun violence in their communities. This study utilized a retrospective sample of adolescents derived from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV) to understand the prevalence and severity of cognitive and emotional symptoms associated with childhood exposure to community gun violence compared to other types of adverse childhood events. The results showed that adolescents who have been exposed to community gun violence self-reported higher levels of negative emotion and cognitive disturbance in comparison to peers who have had no exposure to these forms of adverse events. Compared to these peers reporting no adverse events, an increase of 30% was observed in negative emotions and 33% in cognitive disturbance when the adolescent is exposed to community gun violence. An increase of 22% in negative emotions and 30% in cognitive disturbance was observed when an adolescent is exposed to other forms of community disorder. Finally, adolescent participants who were exposed to childhood adverse events other than community disorder and gun violence reported 8% greater negative emotions and 28% greater cognitive disturbance than peers reporting no adverse events during adolescence. These results suggest that exposure to gun violence promotes negative emotionality and increases cognitive disturbance.

Community firearm violence in the United States (US), defined as intentional fatal and nonfatal shootings that result from interpersonal violence, has a disproportionately negative impact on racialized and minoritized groups. Recent research indicates that areas with limited economic prospects, higher concentrations of poverty, and residential instability tend to experience increased firearm violence. These factors are commonly recognized as social determinants of health. It is hypothesized that these determinants are symptoms of deeper upstream factors, including structural racism and longstanding structural disinvestment. This dissertation aims to deepen the understanding of current trends in community firearm violence, especially in relation to the historical context of structural racism. This will be achieved through a systematic review of existing literature and comprehensive empirical research. This dissertation is divided into five chapters, beginning with an introductory overview. The second chapter presents a systematic review of the literature, focusing on various methodologies for measuring structural racism and estimating its association with community firearm violence (Aim 1). Chapters 3 and 4 involve empirical analyses. In Chapter 3, I develop and apply a structural racism index to study its relationship with community firearm violence in U.S. cities (Aim 2). This investigation spans three distinct historical periods of structural racism, testing its long-term impact on the risk of community firearm violence. Chapter 4 examines the impact of hot spot policing specifically through the use of stop, question, and frisk (SQF) on community firearm violence (Aim 3). It is posited that SQF perpetuates structural racism by disproportionately targeting minority communities, thereby contributing to the cyclical nature of violence within these neighborhoods. The aim is to determine if there is a measurable relationship between this single aspect of structural racism and the occurrence of community firearm violence in New York City. The final chapter, Chapter 5, synthesizes the research findings and situates them within the wider epidemiological discourse on firearm violence. The results from Aim 1 of this study highlight a range of methods used to measure structural racism, all consistently demonstrating a positive association between structural racism and the incidence of community firearm violence. The Aim 2 findings demonstrate a statistically significant association between historical structural racism and increased incidence of community firearm violence in cities. Notably, the study identified significant associations between each of the three historical periods under study and a heightened risk of community firearm violence over time. Finally, Aim 3 reveals that stop, question, and frisk practices are statistically significantly associated with an increase in community firearm violence in block groups in New York City, even after controlling for additional indicators of structural racism and spatial dependencies. In conclusion, this dissertation demonstrates a consistent and significant relationship between historical structural racism and the incidence of community firearm violence. Structural racism has a long-standing and widespread influence on community firearm violence, evident across various cities and scales, from broad systems of inequality to individual neighborhoods. This reality necessitates comprehensive, well-targeted interventions by policymakers and community leaders to tackle the deep-rooted causes of violence.

Research Objectives: Every day in the United States 110 people are killed with firearms, and more than 230 are shot and survive. Survivors of community-based gun violence encounter complex challenges, including increased mental health risks and re-victimization, amidst societal stigma and weakened trust in support systems. The fear of community-based gun violence substantially distorts the way that millions of people live their lives producing detrimental mental repercussions not only for survivors but for their family members as well. Research shows that parents and other family members of child and adolescent gunshot survivors experience an increase in mental health disorders. Typically, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a concept used to understand the traumatic aftermath and symptomatology of this type of violence. However, it overlooks the anticipatory threat of community-based gun violence, which continually influences future decisions and behaviors while lacking the historical context that accounts for the disproportionate nature of community-based gun violence (e.g. race and socioeconomic status). Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS) focuses on the ongoing anticipation of future threats and traumas, rather than those from the past. CTS has mainly been utilized within the international literature in war-torn countries and highlights how persistent poverty, racial and gender-based violence, as well as violence committed by institutional actors (e.g. law enforcement), continuously traumatizes vulnerable populations. Understanding community-based gun violence through CTS may provide a new perspective of its psychological and social impact. As a result, a CTS pilot scale was developed to focus on how often participants have experienced community violence and the frequency in which it consumed their thought process. Moreover, little research has investigated the impact of gun violence on the family system. This study seeks to help fill these gaps by applying CTS and family systems theory (FST) to understand the continuous traumatic stressors that community-based gun violence and their families experience post injury and how is this violence perceived to impact on the family system. Methods: This qualitative study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to conduct 21 separate qualitative interviews between November 2022 and March 2024 with survivors of gun violence and their chosen family members from Brooklyn, NY. Participants were first asked questions pertaining to CTS and were then administered the CTS pilot scale. The pilot scale gathered lifetime data about their exposure to direct and indirect violence as context for the present and future based threats that have been highlighted within the CTS literature. They were then asked questions pertaining to FST. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed by a team of three researchers. Given that the hermeneutic phenomenology is not restricted to a set of analytical techniques, a deductive thematic analysis approach was first used to utilize a predefined set of codes, rooted in the foundational components of family systems theory and CTS to begin the analysis. Then an inductive thematic analysis approach was then used to analyze the data to derive concepts and themes that were not apparent in the FST or CTS literature. Results: Qualitative analysis from interviews with gunshot survivors and their chosen family members yielded three key thematic findings pertaining to FST. 1) Alterations in Communication 2) Reconstructing Masculinity and 3) Identity and Support Changes. Qualitative analysis pertaining to CTS with gunshot survivors and their chosen family members yielded three key thematic findings: 4) Absence of protection 5) Present and Anticipated Trauma and 6) Post Traumatic Growth. Conclusion: Specific implications for the field of social work, including those who work with survivors of community violence are outlined. Additionally, this chapter details modifications to social work practices and policies aimed to reduce gun violence that may improve outcomes for social workers and participants. The chapter closing by addressing the theoretical implications for CTS and FST, implications for future research, and finally, disclosing limitations.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 47 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This thesis analyzes the policy effects of several state gun control restrictions in the United States. The study employs the data of gun related crimes and gun control restrictions from Statistical Abstract of Criminal Justice Handbook through five years (from 1995 to 2000). Although many scholars have studied previously gun control policy effects on crimes, they always focus on the total violence level and ignore to compare the policy effects of different gun control laws. The present study examines intensively gun related crimes and compares several gun control policies. Pooled data is employed to access the effects of gun control restrictions, and it is another advancement based on previous studies, which always use cross-sectional or time series designs. / ABSTRACT: These findings partially reject the previous conclusions that gun control laws have no effects on violence and for gun related homicides and robberies; several gun control restrictions like registration, license, and waiting period show some significant policy effects. Contrary to the past study, the permit to purchase, which has been regarded as the most efficient law, produces no significant policy effects. Sale report to police and certain firearm prohibited also have no significant effects. Among control variables, race and urban population exert the obvious influences on the gun violence, and specifically, the density of population affects the gun related homicides and high school graduates affects the gun related robberies. Implications of these findings and potential for future research are discussed. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Recently, empirical attention has been directed toward understanding public opinion about gun control laws. Despite this focus, three gaps are evident in extant scholarship. First, few current examinations have relied on recently collected, national data to explore predictors of public attitudes. Second, relatively little work systematically investigates whether type of weapon bans (e.g. handgun versus semi-automatic weapon) affects public support for a given gun control initiative. Third, and importantly, the general focus in prediction support for gun control measures has been on social and demographic factors. Little is known from a theoretical perspective about how other variables - such as knowledge of Constitutinal issues or perceptions of the U.S. Supreme Court - affect public attitudes toward gun control. Using national poll data collected in 2011 by Time magazine, this study addresses these research gaps by estimating several logistic regression analyses. Research and policy implications are discussed. / by Elizabeth Borkowski. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.