Local Violence as an Environmental Exposure with Increasing Relevance under Climate Change: A Conceptual Framework – Psychiatry AI: Real-Time AI Scoping Review

AI Summary

Climate change and ambient heat increase violent crime, worsening exposures and health in resource-poor communities and amplifying inequities.
Violent crime is a severe psychosocial stressor that exacerbates heat and pollution effects, plausibly mediating some child health impacts of heat.
A conceptual framework and methods are needed to measure violence as an environmental exposure and guide epidemiology, policy and clinical action.

AI Summary

In addition, as heat is associated with greater violence, and both heat and violence are shown to negatively influence child mental and physical health, some proportion of heat impacts on health may plausibly be mediated through local violence. Taken together, there is a need for frameworks and methods to disentangle the independent and synergistic effects of climate-related violence, heat, and pollution on child health, and to translate this understanding into clinical and public health action to protect patients and families. Here, we propose a framework for examining violence as a climate-related environmental exposure, and discuss (1) conceptualization of violence as an environmental variable, (2) impacts of violent crime on perceived stress, (3) measuring local violence for epidemiology, (4) pathways for impacts of local violence on health in the context of climate change, in combination with other climate-related exposures, and (5) implications for policy and practice.

Basic summary

J Urban Health. 2026 Jun 2. doi: 10.1007/s11524-026-01071-5. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Violent crime is increasing worldwide with climate change and ambient heat, with greater increases projected in communities already high in crime or lacking resources for mitigation, exacerbating inequities in exposures and health. Our work has shown that violent crime-as a severe psychosocial stressor-can exacerbate effects of climate-related heat and pollution on health. In addition, as heat is associated with greater violence, and both heat and violence are shown to negatively influence child mental and physical health, some proportion of heat impacts on health may plausibly be mediated through local violence. Taken together, there is a need for frameworks and methods to disentangle the independent and synergistic effects of climate-related violence, heat, and pollution on child health, and to translate this understanding into clinical and public health action to protect patients and families. Here, we propose a framework for examining violence as a climate-related environmental exposure, and discuss (1) conceptualization of violence as an environmental variable, (2) impacts of violent crime on perceived stress, (3) measuring local violence for epidemiology, (4) pathways for impacts of local violence on health in the context of climate change, in combination with other climate-related exposures, and (5) implications for policy and practice.

PMID:42230508 | DOI:10.1007/s11524-026-01071-5

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