Novel linkage of individual and geographic data to study firearm violence

Branas, C. C., Culhane, D., Richmond, T. S., & Wiebe, D. J. (2008). Novel linkage of individual and geographic data to study firearm violenceHomicide Studies12(3), 298-320.

Abstract

Firearm violence is the end result of a causative web of individual-level and geographic risk factors. Few, if any, studies of firearm violence have been able to simultaneously determine the population-based relative risks that individuals experience as a result of what they were doing at a specific point in time and where they were, geographically, at a specific point in time. This paper describes the linkage of individual and geographic data that was undertaken as part of a population-based case-control study of firearm violence in Philadelphia. New methods and applications of these linked data relevant to researchers and policymakers interested in firearm violence are also discussed.