Overt forms of interpersonal, physical, and gun violence have dominated mainstream narratives regarding violence in schools. However, covert and hegemonic forms of violence propagated daily throughout K-12 urban public schools often persist unnoticed and thus unchallenged. The perceived equalizing nature of public education often labels schools as safe, race-neutral landscapes capable of buffering students from outside harm.
Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, PhD, MPH, and Shani Buggs, PhD, MPH, co-wrote an evaluation report alongside Christy Adams, PhD, MPH, RN and Ian Brown, MD, PhD on the UC Davis Medical Center (UCDMC) Wraparound Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program.
The adverse impacts of community firearm violence in the U.S. are unequally felt across geographic and various sociodemographic segments of our population. Researchers, government leaders, and the general public need to contend with the various ways in which unjust socioeconomic and political forces and systems of power and privilege lead to differences in risk exposure among population groups, as well as differences in the extent to which various segments of the population are protected from the adverse effects of firearm violence.
Violence is defined as “the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.”
To determine how effective the current system of risk-based parole is, researchers from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program and the University of Missouri, Kansas City, used machine learning to analyze parole data from New York.
The machine learning algorithm found the predicted risks for those denied parole and those released are very similar. This suggests that low-risk individuals may have remained incarcerated, while high-risk individuals were released.
During the first five months of the pandemic in 2020, low-income communities of color experienced significantly greater increases in firearm violence, homicides and assaults compared to more affluent, white neighborhoods.
Previous studies showed increases in violence in U.S. cities during the pandemic but did not indicate where violence was highest or increased most within those cities.
Shani Buggs, PhD, MPH, co-wrote a report, alongside members of the John Jay College Research Advisory Group on Preventing and Reducing Community Violence, summarizing research on policies and programs known to reduce community violence without relying on police. This report was requested by and submitted to Arnold Ventures.
Seven key strategies identified by the group were:
