Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects Student Scholarship Spring 2021 Understanding the Complexities and Origins of Gun Violence in Chicago Christopher Bilicic
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses Part of the American Politics Commons, Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Justice Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Bilicic, Christopher, "Understanding the Complexities and Origins of Gun Violence in Chicago". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2021. Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/866 UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEXITIES AND ORIGINS OF GUN VIOLENCE IN CHICAGO A thesis presented by Christopher Bilicic to The Political Science Department in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in Political Science Trinity College Hartford, CT April 10, 2021 Professor Anna Terwiel Stefanie Chambers Thesis Advisor Department Chair 2 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 3 Chapter 2: Chicago’s History of Housing Discrimination and Racial Segregation 28 Chapter 3: Legal Cynicism and Chicago’s History of Police Abuse 68 Chapter 4: Public Policy Solutions 83 Chapter 5: Conclusion 134 3 Chapter 1 Introduction 4 Last summer, in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago’s South Side, Yasmin Miller was driving home from her local laundromat with her 20-month-old son, Sincere Gaston, seated in the back of her car. Several stray bullets from a nearby shooting hit Yasmin’s car, killing her son. At a vigil for Sincere, Yasmin Miller made an emotional plea to her South Side community: “We need your help.