Date of Conferral

2018

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Criminal Justice

Advisor

Yoshi Yoshimine

Abstract

Urban violence has become common in lower-income communities that have high rates of shootings and African-American victims. Urban violence causes victims and their family and friends to experience trauma and puts them at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) injuries. However, there is a gap in knowledge in the framework of urban communities and their range of needs to address PTSD. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether a relationship exists between reinforcement of needs, membership, influence, shared emotional connection, and post-traumatic stress symptomology (PTSS) of urban violence victims in a large metropolitan city. Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory and social conflict theory comprised the theoretical framework for this research. A correlational design was employed with a convenience sample of 83 respondents drawn from urban violence victims using an internet-based survey instrument designed to assess the elements of sense of community. The research questions examined participants' perceptions of reinforcement of needs, membership, influence, shared emotional connection, and PTSS. Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression analyses were performed on the collected data to test the hypotheses. The findings did not show a statistically significant relationship between participants' perceptions of sense of community and PTSD. However, victims of urban violence can use the results of this study to expand understanding of PTSD to address the realities of living in lower-income geographical locations, therefore leading to positive social change.

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