Research for gun violence prevention

PEAC 77

Simon Elichko (they/he)

Social Sciences & Data Librarian

bit.ly/selichk1
 

Five research tips:

1. Understand the information timeline

2. Check Gun Violence Archive for links about the incident

3. Search carefully

4. Expand your research toolkit

5. Reach out for support

Understanding the Information Timeline

Who knows what and when?

Journalists

Bystanders

Emergency responders

Court processes

Researchers

Some information (e.g. social media) can be read immediately, while other information
(e.g. records from the Delaware County Medical Examiner) isn't necessarily available to readers until later.

Check Gun Violence Archive for links to news coverage about the incident

How to look up an incident using
Gun Violence Archive:

gunviolencearchive.org/query

1. From the homepage, go to 
   Search Database (top right)
2. Choose Add a Rule
3. Under Most Popular Filters, choose Location
4. In the first blank drop-down menu, choose Pennsylvania
5. For City, type the city (it should auto-complete). Click Search.
   
   Note: Don't use the County box, it doesn't work!

Examples: Incidents by location (city)

• Upper Darby
• Chester

Finding incidents by location and date range

gunviolencearchive.org/query

Example: Incidents in Chester between January–March 2021

When following links to news stories, you may run into paywalls

There may be news coverage even if there's no Gun Violence Archive record for the incident

• Delaware County Daily Times
  • Example article: "Chester is a model for reducing crime"
  • You can read this by using the database Access World News (Newsbank) and searching for the article
  • Find the Access World News database link on your course research guide
  • Don't see it? Change from "Newest First" to "Relevance"
     
• Paywalled articles from other newspapers / news sources
  • Search Tripod for the newspaper / source (not for the article)
  • You can request a PDF using the Journal Article Request link on Borrowing Beyond TriCo

Where else to search for information about incidents

Delaware County & Philadelphia Area News Search

• Linked from course guide with examples
• Limits results to local news sources
• Particularly helpful if you have very little info to use as keywords
• Try searching by date range: "upper darby" after:2021-01-01  before:2022-12-31

DelcoDispatch.com

• Call records for some emergency response departments in Delco 
• Can give you limited basic info about incidents as understood at the time -- remember these early details aren't necessarily accurate
• Ad-supported site run by private individuals, not official

Searching social media

• Using Google: ("shots fired" | shooting) "chester" "PA" site:facebook.com | site:youtube.com | site:tiktok.com | site:instagram.com | site:patch.com
  • Can add date limits:  ____ after:2020 before:2022

Use existing news coverage to help you choose keywords

Look at existing news coverage of
gun violence incidents:

• Notice patterns – what kind of information is provided? What's missing?
• Pay attention to word choice – what words might come up in news coverage about other incidents?

Some useful keywords found in news articles:

• single words: shot, shooting, killed, homicide, weapon, gun, gunshots
• phrases: "shots fired" "shots were fired"

Each search consists of three main ingredients:

• Sources - which websites or documents you're searching
• Keywords - words you've chosen to include
• Search syntax - instructions you provide to the search engine about how to handle your keywords

Build your search carefully

Let's practice building searches:

bit.ly/peac77-access-world

Build your search carefully

How to use search syntax:

To find articles mentioning any of these words:
shot OR shooting OR killed OR homicide OR weapon OR gun

Check for multiple keywords at one time using OR

To find articles mentioning any of these words or phrases:

"shots fired" OR "shots were fired" OR shot OR shooting OR killed OR homicide OR weapon OR gun

Example search in Google

Example search in Delaware County Times via Access World News database

Build your search carefully

How to use search syntax:

To find articles mentioning Upper Darby and any of the other keywords:

("Upper Darby" AND Pennsylvania) AND (shot OR shooting OR killed OR homicide OR weapon OR gun)

Combine multiple concepts into keyword groups using parentheses ( )

Search by date:

gunshot Chester PA before:2019-12-31 after:2019-10-01

Group and Exclude Terms:

("shots fired" OR gunshot) AND (Chester OR "Delaware County") -"Port Chester" -"West Chester" -"Chester County"

Build your search carefully

How to use search syntax:

Advanced Google syntax

Expand your research toolkit

Web Archives

If you find a broken link, use the Wayback Machine to look for an archived copy.

Search websites for local government, police, etc.

Can help you find press releases and conferences

shooting site:chestercity.com OR site:delcoda.com OR delaware.crimewatchpa.com

Try DuckDuckGo, Bing, or other alternatives to Google

Try searching "police blotter" and town name

Reach out

Get help with researching cases:

• Quick questions --> Chat in Tripod
   
• Help with finding sources and searching, organizing your results -->
  • Make an appointment (bit.ly/selichk1)
  • Email Simon: selichk1@swarthmore.edu
     
• Check resources listed in the course guide for Gun Violence Prevention

Source: Seminole State University Library. Information Timeline. Research Foundations.