Gun Violence Significantly Increased by Social Interactions
Social networks predict a person's risk of being a victim of gun
homicide.   It turns out that who you know and spend time with
may have more of an influence on your risk of becoming a gun
homicide victim, than race, age and gang affiliation, according
to a new study from a team of sociologists at Yale University.
[STUDY: More Violence in PG-13 Movies Than R-Rated Films]
Andrew Papachristos, an associate professor of sociology at
Yale, analyzed police and gun homicide records from 2006 to 2011
for people living in a high-crime neighborhood in Chicago. He
found that 41 percent of all gun homicides occurred within a
network of less than 4 percent of the neighborhood's population,
and that the closer one is connected to a homicide victim, the
greater that person's chances were for becoming a victim. Each
social tie removed from a homicide victim decreased a person's
odds of becoming a victim by 57 percent.  "What the findings
essentially tell you is