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Assessing the Contagiousness of Mass Shootings with Nonparametric Hawkes Processes (304195)
*Peter Carson Boyd, Oregon State UniversityJames Molyneux, Oregon State University
Keywords: Hawkes process, nonparametric estimation, point process, mass shooting, gun violence
Gun violence and mass shootings are high-profile epidemiological issues facing the United States with questions regarding their contagiousness gaining prevalence in news media. Through the use of nonparametric Hawkes processes, we examine the evidence for the existence of contagiousness within a catalog of mass shootings and highlight the broader benefits of using such nonparametric point process models in modeling the occurrence of such events.