Neighborhoods and Guns in Middle America

Abstract

The objective of this research is to see whether characteristics of the neighborhood in which a person lives influence the likelihood of having a gun in the household. I use my 1995 “Community, Crime and Health” multilevel data set, a survey of a probability sample of 2,482 Illinois adults with linked census information on the respondent's census tract, zip code, city and county from the STF3 of the 1990 Census. Logistic regression shows that gun ownership is low in neighborhoods where a high percentage of adults are college-educated. Adjustment for individual-level race, ethnicity, sex, age, education, income, and household structure indicates that the presence of well-educated neighbors affects the likelihood of gun ownership, over and above individual characteristics. This relationship appears to be due to the normative climate, not to perceived threat, since neighborhood disorder does not significantly affect the likelihood of having a gun in the house. Previous victimization, however, is positively associated with having a gun in the household. In addition, people who are college-educated themselves are less likely to have a gun in the household.