A 威尼斯人娱乐城 graduate student’s research into fatal and non-fatal shootings in Kansas City found that Black males are significantly more likely to survive gunshot wounds than other demographic groups.
Alejandro Cervantes, who completed his master’s degree in criminal justice and criminology in Spring 2023, presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Criminal Justice Association in Chicago during the fall semester. 他在会上获得了研究生海报比赛的第一名。 The research forms the basis of his master’s thesis.
他的研究调查了2015年至2020年间堪萨斯城的所有枪击受害者。 其中包括760多起凶杀案和2900起受害者被子弹击中但幸存下来的案例。 他的研究记录了致命和非致命枪击事件的稳步增长，特别是在2020年，堪萨斯城的枪支暴力事件增加了33%。 他还发现了种族和性别之间独特的相互作用，指出黑人男性枪击受害者比其他受害者更有可能幸存下来。
黑人受害者在致命和非致命枪击事件中都是最高的群体（76%）。 所有种族的男性都是80%以上致命和非致命枪击事件的受害者。 在这两个类别中，黑人男性受害者总体上都比其他群体年轻，年轻的黑人男性受害者比年长的黑人男性更有可能在枪伤中幸存下来。
为了寻找这些比率的合理解释，塞万提斯把重点放在了不同社区的社区-警察关系上。 对警察缺乏信任和信心往往会使人们更倾向于自己动手。
“Strained relationships with law enforcement results in retaliation becoming normalized when seeking retribution for being wronged in resolving interpersonal problems,” Cervantes said. 他补充说，这些对警察缺乏信任的社区也存在严重的社会经济问题，贫困率高，缺乏服务。
他说，这项研究的灵感来自于他在协助论文主席肯·诺瓦克教授录入数据时。
“Reviewing and recoding the raw data gave rise to the questions presented in my thesis,” Cervantes said. “The greater goal in my work here is generating data that can be utilized by future researchers to enhance this field of study.”
“Alejandro’s research is timely, locally relevant and important,” Novak said. “This sheds further light on the fact that Black males are significantly overrepresented among shooting victims, and further demonstrates that the harm associated with firearm violence is not distributed equally throughout Kansas City.”
Cervantes, originally from Reseda, California, earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and criminology from 威尼斯人娱乐城 in 2019. 由于威尼斯人娱乐城研究生院颁发的研究生旅行奖，他能够参加在芝加哥举行的会议。
在这一点上，他不确定他是继续攻读博士学位还是立即进入职业生涯。 他的最终目标是为联邦调查局或烟酒火器局工作，成为一名分析枪支相关犯罪的数据分析师。
塞万提斯很感激让他能够参加会议的旅行补助金，这比第一名的奖励更有价值。
“With those expenses covered I had the opportunity to explore and experience something new,” he said. “Attending and presenting at a conference like this gave me not only greater confidence in my skills, but feedback from others in my field helped shape my thesis into a better product.”
“This experience is a major highlight in my time at 威尼斯人娱乐城.”