New research from an associate professor at The University of New Mexico’s College of Population Health (COPH) highlights significant disparities in gun violence experienced by African American communities across the United States and the societal factors that contribute to this issue.
Tameka L. Gillum, PhD, who has 25 years of experience researching intimate partner violence and community health within minority populations, proposes that gun violence prevention efforts in African American communities should address structural factors in society. "As an African American scholar who is from and has spent decades working in predominantly Black communities, I know firsthand the devastating impact that violence disparities, facilitated by structural inequalities, have had on our communities. This paper seeks to shed light on this urgent public health concern and the structural conditions which foster it," said Gillum.
The importance of Gillum’s research is underscored by alarming statistics from 2021, which recorded 48,830 gun-related fatalities in the United States, an all-time high. Strikingly, African Americans face a gun homicide rate nearly 14 times higher than their white counterparts. These disparities prompted Gillum to further assess underlying causes of this inequity, including institutional racism, inadequate community health support in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and structural economic disadvantages faced by African Americans.
Titled "Using the Socio-Ecological Model to Understand Increased Risk of Gun Violence in the African American Community," Gillum’s paper has been published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Psychological Reports. The socio-ecological model utilized in the paper is a public health framework that helps understand how different levels of society influence a person's experiences, behaviors and health outcomes. It establishes how broader societal issues work together to shape rates of community violence and individual health outcomes.
The socio-ecological model identifies four levels (individual, relationship, community, societal) to improve understanding of the connection between individuals and their environments. Gillum used this model to determine why the African American community experiences an elevated risk of gun violence in the U.S. and to propose strategies for prevention.
In the publication, Gillum along with her colleagues Clarice J. Hampton, MA, and Chante Coppedge, MS identified a range of risk factors across all levels of the socio-ecological model. At the individual level, they found substantial barriers to accessing support services such as lack of culturally sensitive medical care and personal transportation issues. Community-level factors include intrusive policing and chronic exposure to violence creating a cycle of trauma. The authors highlight how societal-level issues deeply rooted in historical racism and persistent structural inequities perpetuate gun violence in African American communities.
For example, during a study of six low-income neighborhoods in New Haven, Connecticut researchers found that African American participants were more likely than Latinx and white residents to have heard gunshots in their neighborhood and experienced loss due to violence including gun violence.
Gillum's work emphasizes multilevel interventions targeting both immediate concerns such as firearms access as well as broader societal issues rooted in structural racism and social inequalities. This comprehensive approach reflects findings that gun violence in African American communities is influenced by a wide range of structural factors beyond individual behaviors.
As the country continues grappling with persistent gun violence issues this synthesis offers analysis identifying potential multi-level approaches addressing this crisis contributing broader awareness understanding disproportionate impact on African American community as critical public health issue.
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