Danger, Students Beware, School Ahead! Gun Violence Exposure Near Schools in Compton, California

Abstract

Abstract Gun-related violence exposure is a significant public health problem for urban youth. Few studies have implemented methods to estimate the spatial influence of activity spaces on gun violence exposure constrained by the physical configuration of walkable street networks. The present research uses computational network and local indicators of spatial autocorrelation methods to explore gun violence exposure along the walkable streets near schools in Compton, California. Findings demonstrated strong evidence that gun violence is clustered at all distances along the pedestrian network and in proximity to Compton Unified School District K-12 schools reaching a maximum between 1.2-1.8 miles after which the attractiveness of schools to gun violence was inhibiting. Almost all schools had at least one shooting within a 5-minute walk (i.e., about 400 m); 37.8% of schools had an average shooting distance less than 400 meters; about 250 incidents occurred within 5-minutes of schools, and about 30 schools had a shooting within a 5-minute walking distance. Determining the spatial extent of violence exposure in proximity to key activity spaces for youth, such as schools, has substantial implications for youth living in violence-prone areas. The public health and legal implications of this study are discussed in context.