Exposure to Evictions is Associated with Exposure to Firearm Violence in Chicago

By Tori Bourret, NLIHC Manager, State and Local Innovation Outreach  

A new study published in JAMA Network Open, “Eviction, Collective Efficacy, and Firearm Violence in Chicago” explores whether evictions are associated with higher rates of neighborhood firearm violence in Chicago. The study also explores whether evictions change the relationship between neighborhood residents’ belief in their ability to work together for a common goal, known as collective efficacy, and neighborhood firearm violence. The study finds that increased exposure to evictions, both at the individual and community levels, was associated with an increased number of firearm shootings within 1,000 feet of an individual’s home and that greater collective efficacy was associated with lower firearm violence in communities with high eviction rates. These findings suggest that preventing evictions could be an effective tool in a toolbox of interventions to reduce firearm violence. 

Collective efficacy, or residents’ belief they can work together to achieve a common goal, is a neighborhood social characteristic that previous research indicates is positively associated with neighborhood safety and with lower rates of violence. The study’s authors hypothesized that evictions could worsen neighborhood collective efficacy, because of its destabilizing effect on individuals and communities, and would be associated with higher rates of firearm violence. At the same time, collective efficacy may play a more critical function in neighborhoods with structural disadvantages like high eviction rates. 

The study paired individual survey data from the Healthy Chicago Survey with publicly available data on evictions and firearm violence in Chicago. The study found that exposure to eviction, both at the community and individual levels, was consistently associated with an increased number of shootings within 1,000 feet of a survey participant's home. A personal experience of eviction was associated with one additional shooting within 1,000 feet of a participant’s home, and each percentage increase in a census tract’s eviction rate was associated with 2.66 more shootings within 1,000 feet of a participant’s home. In terms of collective efficacy, in neighborhoods with low to no evictions, collective efficacy was not associated with firearm violence. In neighborhoods with high rates of eviction, greater collective efficacy was associated with lower rates of gun violence. These findings indicate collective efficacy is an important mitigating factor in neighborhoods with high eviction rates, but less so in neighborhoods with few evictions.  

The findings suggest that policies to prevent evictions could, in combination with other interventions, combat firearm violence. Future research should examine the causal connection between evictions and firearm violence, as well as eviction policies’ impacts on eviction rates, firearm violence, and neighborhoods. 

Read the study here.