Crime and gun violence declined in the U.S. over a 20-year period starting in the early part of this century.

But then came the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and murders surged by 30% across the country, but especially in cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore and Chicago. However, smaller cities in our region like Harrisburg and York weren’t immuned either.

There are signs the number of shootings has actually gone down nationwide in 2023, but there still are way too many.

What is noticeable is the age of the shooters and the victims of gun violence.  The nationwide homicide rate for 15 to 19-year-olds increased by 91% from 2014 to 2021.

Something else that has proliferated during the last 20 years is the use of social media. Has it had an impact on gun violence?

Our guest on The Spark Thursday studies that topic. Joining us was Dr. Desmond Patton, a professor of social policy, communications and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Who explains that, "It is extremely hard to determine whether or not a Facebook post, if you will, actually caused a violent act, because usually there are a number of factors at play. Number one, it's really hard to interpret social media posts and to understand if that interpretation caused harm. And so we spent a lot of time trying to make meaning of social media posts, working with youth in particular to translate and interpret context in meaning in social media posts. But even with that local level context, it's still extremely hard to accurately interpret the meaning of a social media post. And then everything that happens in the real world, whether or not there was an event that happened external to the social media engagement, or if there were additional reasons why someone might be angry or have the desire to cause harm. And so it's really hard to put a clear and direct pinpoint on direct columns in this space. 

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