A new study tracking victims of shootings in Chicago finds that the likelihood of being wounded rises precipitously after being arrested and the Chicago Police Department says it is using the information to help stop crime.
The study published this month, titled, “Tragic, but not random: The social contagion of nonfatal gunshot injuries,” finds that only six percent of Chicagoans were listed as being arrested by the Chicago Police Department but those same people accounted for 70 percent of those shot in the city.
The Chicago Police, though, say that this study has helped them lower crimes in the city by giving police a concentrated list of those likely to involved in future crime.
Naturally, the study also found that race was a key factor in shootings. “For every 100,000 people, an average of one white person, 28 Hispanics and 113 blacks became victims of nonfatal shootings every year in Chicago over the six-year study period,” The Chicago Tribune reported.
But even the racial angle wasn’t a singular factor. After all, millions of blacks never get arrested or shot in Chicago. Consequently, the study discovered that one of the factors was being involved in the justice system.
The CPD, though, says it is using the lists created by the authors of the study to watch those most at risk.
“We’re keeping track of them,” said Robert Tracy, chief of crime control strategy for the Chicago Police. “Arming our officers with more intelligence has helped us drive down crime.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter: @warnerthuston. Email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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