Climate Change and Levels of Violence in Socially Disadvantaged Neighborhood Groups

The current study examines the link between climate change and neighborhood levels of violence using 20 years of monthly climatic and crime data from St. Louis, MO, USA. St. Louis census tracts are aggregated in neighborhood groups of similar levels of social disadvantage, after which each group is subjected to time series analysis. Findings suggest that neighborhoods with higher levels of social disadvantage are very likely to experience higher levels of violence as a result of anomalously warm temperatures. The 20 % of most disadvantaged neighborhoods in St. Louis, MO, USA are predicted to experience over half of the climate change-related increase in cases of violence. These results provide further evidence that the health impacts of climate change are proportionally higher among populations that are already at high risk and underscore the need to comprehensively address climate change.