Neighborhood Effect: Gun violence & segregation in Charlottesville

Yes, our gun violence problem is complicated, but it’s odd leaving one of the key complexities - segregation - out of the discussion.

Weldon Cooper Center’s Racial Dot Map of Charlottesville. White (blue), Black (green), Asian (red), Hispanic (orange), Other (brown)

This Daily Progress article [“Resolving Charlottesville's violence problem is a complex matter”] provides one of the most detailed reports we’ve seen on our gun violence problem. And that’s a good thing. However, it comes dangerously close to advancing the kind of “problem neighborhood” argument that prompts communities to think gun violence can be solved by greater police presence in those neighborhoods. Ironically, we have our own Police Chief pushing back on that notion here, saying that community investment and opportunity creation in these neighborhoods is the solution and that “we all are responsible for the co-production of public safety in Charlottesville.”

What’s missing here, however, is any direct mention of the link between segregation and rates of violence. Indeed, the word “segregation” is not even used in this article, and yet studies have …