A Report from the NIMBioS/DySoC Investigative Workshop on the Mathematics of Gun Violence

Abstract

Gun violence is a central public concern in the United States, annually leading to the deaths of 36,000 individuals and the non-fatal injuries of 85,000 others. It has been called an epidemic and a public health crisis. In May of 2019, a diverse group of researchers participated in a workshop at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This workshop was sponsored by the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (DySoC) and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS). The objectives of this workshop were to review the existing approaches on the mathematics and modeling of gun violence, identify and prioritize areas in the field that require further research, develop cross-disciplinary collaborations to gain new perspectives, and suggest research and data collection that could assist evidence-based policy recommendations. The purpose of this report is to present some of the responses to the mentioned objectives and to suggest areas of future research .

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“…Today, the world is affected by many cases of human behavior that lack the support of any possible logic, be in psychological in nature or criminological in nature. Certain notable examples include the rise of student gun violence across USA (Scott, 2020); fanatic spread of misinformation and rampant extremism on the lines of self-made beliefs and groups with highly illogical group membership criteria. An increased focus of researchers studying these behaviours is on identifying the root causes and establishing the cause-and -effect scenario for these behaviours.…”

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“…A criminal may still commit a crime, post his punishment period, if that infection is not treated. Also, any normal individual may not commit crime for a long period, despite being infected by the thought, is no less threat to the society than an untreated person infected with flu roaming freely in crowded streets [5]. It becomes, therefore, quintessential for introducing the field of CogEpiCrim as part of the literature and research of government institutions and researchers aiming to curb crime.…”