Objectives

Gun violence can negatively affect business activity at the place-level through a variety of mechanisms. However, estimating this effect is difficult since reported crime data are biased by factors that are also associated with business health. Despite some of its limitations, data from gunshot detection technology has been shown as a new valuable source of data on gun violence (Irvin-Erickson et al. in Appl Geogr 86: 262–273, 2017a). In this study, we use gunshot detection data to explore the spatial relationship between gunshots and business activity at the neighborhood level in Washington, DC between 2010 and 2012.

Methods

In this exploratory study, we create spatial buffers of 500 and 1000 feet around each block and sum up the total number of gunshots and business births, deaths, sales, and number of employees within these buffers each year and estimate a spatial fixed effects panel model.

Results

Gunshots within 1000 feet of a block increase the number of business deaths by 4.3% within that buffer on average, and gunshots within 500 feet of a block decrease the total number of service and retail businesses, the number of employees employed by businesses within that buffer, and total sales for those businesses (although not at a statistically significant rate). Gunshots on blocks with the lowest initial levels of gunshots increase business turnover and reduce the total number of businesses present by 0.5%, and gunshots on blocks with the highest initial levels of gunshots cause an increase in the number of business deaths by 7.5%.

Conclusion

Results suggest that efforts to improve distressed neighborhoods should target both areas with lower and higher pre-existing levels of gunshots.

中文翻译：

---

枪击事件对场所级别的业务活动的影响

目标

枪支暴力行为可以通过多种机制对地方级别的商业活动产生负面影响。但是，由于已报告的犯罪数据受与业务健康相关的因素的影响，因此很难估计这种影响。尽管存在一些局限性，但枪击检测技术的数据已被证明是枪支暴力新的有价值的数据来源（Irvin-Erickson等人，Appl Geogr 86：262-273，2017a）。在这项研究中，我们使用枪击检测数据来探索2010年至2012年之间华盛顿特区邻里级别的枪击与商业活动之间的空间关系。

方法

在这项探索性研究中，我们在每个街区周围创建500英尺和1000英尺的空间缓冲区，并汇总这些缓冲区中每年的枪声和业务出生，死亡，销售以及员工人数的总数，并估算空间固定效果面板模型。

结果

在该缓冲区内1000英尺之内的枪声平均会使该缓冲区内的企业死亡人数增加4.3％，在一个区块500英尺内的枪声会减少服务和零售业务的总数，以及该缓冲区内业务受雇的雇员人数，以及这些业务的总销售额（尽管统计意义不大）。初始枪响水平最低的街区上的枪击事件会增加企业营业额，并使现有公司总数减少0.5％，而在初始枪声水平最高的街区上的枪击事件会导致企业死亡人数增加7.5％。

结论

结果表明，改善受困社区的努力应针对既有枪击水平又有较高枪响水平的地区。