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Homicide Studies, Vol. 12, No. 3, 298-320 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1088767908319756

Novel Linkage of Individual and Geographic Data to Study Firearm Violence

Charles C. Branas

University of Pennsylvania, cbranas{at}upenn.edu

Dennis Culhane

University of Pennsylvania

Therese S. Richmond

University of Pennsylvania

Douglas J. Wiebe

University of Pennsylvania

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.

Key Words: geography • data systems • violence • firearms

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