Violence is a public health problem.
Mass shootings actually account for less than 1% of deaths by firearm in the USA, yet they dominate the media.
Young men of color, often from historically under-resourced neighborhoods, are the main victims of homicide by firearm.
Dominant narratives perpetuate stigma and fail to humanize this crisis.
Our current infrastructure does not work.
Models that have proven effective are typically not applied in practice.
Let’s apply them.
<— Check it out for a full overview of our research. We consider:
Violence as a public health crisis
Violence is a cycle (most perpetrators are also victims)
Violence is a disease: how trauma impacts the brain
The correlation between PTSD and the streets
Health disparities that make community members more susceptible to violence
The carceral system does not cure this disease; rather, it more deeply entrenches violence.
The cost of homicide and incarceration vs. prevention—there is no comparison.
Violence disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income communities.
Striking racial gaps, rooted in a legacy of structural racism, have left generations of people of color with disproportionately less wealth and education, lower access to health care, less stable housing and differential exposure to environmental harms like air pollution. Such factors contribute to concentrated poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods and other community conditions tied to violent offending.
Violent crime increased by 19 percent within 250 feet of a newly vacant foreclosed home and that the crime rate increased the longer the property remained vacant.
Concentrated disadvantage, crime, and imprisonment appear to interact in a continually destabilizing feedback loop.
“Equal opportunities — including the opportunity to live, work, learn, play, and worship free from violence — are not afforded to all Americans and that the greatest burdens of violence are shouldered by our most marginalized and economically vulnerable neighborhoods.”
“Violent crime devastates communities already suffering under high rates of concentrated poverty.”
“In 2020…there were approximately 14 more incidents of firearm violence in the least-privileged zip codes compared to the most privileged zip codes, and almost 150 more aggravated assaults and five more homicides.”
COST.
The cost of one homicide to a city is around $10 million dollars cumulatively.
That $10 million comes from:
medical expenses, criminal costs, incarceration, lost wages over time, devalued property, avoidance, economic decline. (Bleeding Out, Abt, p. 23)
The Berkshire County House of Correction budgets for around $100,000/inmate/year.
The cost of homicide + incarceration, not to mention the individual and collective loss and trauma (impossible to quantify), is enormous.
Comparatively, the cost of prevention is miniscule.
For every dollar invested in violence prevention, cities can save up to $19 in reduced healthcare, criminal, and legal costs.
And it means saving lives, keeping families together, and investing in individuals and communities—rather than further entrenching violence and trauma.
We must shift our focus from punishment to prevention.
Violence is a cycle.
Hurt people hurt people: most perpetrators of violent harm have once been a victim of violence themselves.
“Youth who suffer from chronic exposure to violence are 32 times more likely to become chronic violent offenders.” (Bleeding Out, p. 103)
The narrative around violence tends to perpetuate a false dichotomy between victim and perpetrator. In reality, the vast majority of perpetrators have also been—or continue to be—victims of violence.
Violent behavior does not appear out of thin air. Those who commit acts of violence often have extensive trauma histories, and have had violence committed against them.
In many cases, we see two parties with extensive trauma histories reenacting the violence of their past upon one another. In order to intervene effectively, and help disrupt the cycle, we must first understand that that’s what it is—a cycle. Perpetrators are victims, too.
PTSD and the streets.
“In communities highly impacted by gun violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is more common than among veterans of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Vietnam.”
Americans wounded in their own neighborhoods are not getting treatment for PTSD. They’re not even getting diagnosed.
In fact, trauma appears to have a cumulative effect. Young men with violent injuries may be more likely to develop symptoms if they have been attacked before.
More than half of urban youths exposed to violence suffer from PTSD.
How does trauma impact brain development?
In many ways:
Amygdala: the part of your brain that scans your environment for potential threats.
With PTSD, the amygdala becomes hyperactive, perceiving threats that are not really there. If you are reminded of a past trauma, the amygdala is activated, sending you into fight or flight, “survival,” mode.
Prefrontal cortex: uses reason to assess whether the perceived threat is actually a threat or not.
With PTSD, the development of the prefrontal cortex is stalled, and rationality is suppressed. Without the ability to discern a perceived threat from a real threat, the individual is sent into overdrive—reacting as if everything is a real threat. Without the ability to tell the difference from a real or perceived threat, you live in survival mode—reacting as if everything is an imminent threat.
Hippocampus: the part of your brain that stores memories.
Trauma reduces activity in the hippocampus, making it hard to discern past from present. If something reminds you of a past trauma, you may feel like the traumatic event is happening in the present moment—and react as if it is.
Violence is traumatizing. Experiencing trauma stalls brain development. The more trauma you experience, the more deeply entrenched violence becomes. Many men impacted by street violence have undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with symptoms including hypervigiliance, paranoia, irritability, flashbacks, insomnia, and more. PTSD may also make you quick to anger and reactivity.
Violent behavior is often a symptom of trauma. Those displaying violent behavior need effective psychological intervention. Instead, they are met with a punitive system. Punished, they become more traumatized, and violence becomes further entrenched.
Rather than effectively intervening in the cycle of violence by treating the problem itself, individuals are funneled into a punitive system, further traumatizing them, and further entrenching violence.
Individuals with PTSD often live in ‘survival’ mode. The parts of their brain that uses reason to distinguish a real threat from a perceived threat is suppressed; they feel as if they are constantly under threat—and react as such. They may be hypervigilant, paranoid, irritable, and quick to anger and reactivity.
Violent behavior is often a symptom of entrenching trauma. We must treat it as such—with therapeutic and psychological intervention. And, most importantly, with compassion—rather than punishment.
For a first—person account of living with PTSD on the streets, see ‘KIDS AT WAR.’
Meeting trauma with punishment.
incarceration itself is criminogenic, meaning that spending time in jail or prison actually increases a person’s risk of engaging in crime in the future. This may be because people learn criminal habits or develop criminal networks while incarcerated, but it may also be because of the collateral consequences that derive from even short periods of incarceration, such as loss of employment, loss of stable housing, or disruption of family ties.
One in three Black boys born today can expect to be sentenced to prison, compared to 1 in 6 Latino boys and 1 in 17 white boys nationally.
Berkshire County House of Corrections budgets nearly $100,000/inmate/year.
Education and Program Services make up an average of 3.2% of MA Sheriff's Department's budgets.
Incarceration may actually increase crime. …high rates of imprisonment break down the social and family bonds that guide individuals away from crime, remove adults who would otherwise nurture children, deprive communities of income, reduce future income potential, and engender a deep resentment toward the legal system; as high incarceration becomes concentrated in certain neighborhoods, any potential public safety benefits are outweighed by the disruption to families and social groups that would help keep crime rates low.
The United States has the highest juvenile corrections rate; a rate five times higher than the next highest country.
Since 1975, the U.S. prison population has increased by 752%.
Putting human beings in cages does not solve the problem.
The United States is home to 5 percent of the world’s population,
but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. ~Barack Obama
Black men make up 6.5% of the U.S. population, but 40.2% of the U.S. prison population.
The United States has the highest juvenile corrections rate. It is five times higher than the next highest country.
Nationally, upon being released from correctional facilities, around 50,000 people a year go straight to homeless shelters.
In the first 8 months after community members were
18% of them lost a loved one to homicide,
23% were violently assaulted,
31% experienced a serious health incident.
Men who can expect to be
sentenced to prison:
Black men: 1 in 3
Latino men: 1 in 6
White men: 1 in 17
Violence moves like a disease.
Throughout history, whenever a new and mysterious disease appeared (AIDS, Cholera, etc.), and before anyone understood what the disease was or how it worked, those who got sick were stigmatized, and regarded as dirty. They were stigmatized and regarded as morally reprehensible. But once scientists began to understand the disease itself, and how it spread, they were able to treat it effectively—and the stigma defining those who had contracted the disease diminished. We understood that it was a disease—not a moral imperfection.
We know that violence is a cycle, with most perpetrators first being victims. We know that being a victim of violence is inherently traumatizing. And we know that trauma impacts brain development, which in turn impacts behavior. But because of how our society responds to trauma, individuals who have contracted the disease of violence are met with punishment, justice-involvement, and, often, incarceration—all of which further traumatize, more deeply entrenching violence.
The research and science around violence prevention and intervention exists. We know models that are effective. But because the stigma of violence is so deeply embedded into how we are taught to see those who are violent—from the elementary school student getting in fights at school, to the young man who is perpetrating violence in the community—the research on effective violence prevention and treatment does not, as a rule, define how we treat violence as a community.
This is a problem. The science of violence prevention and intervention is not applied in our community. Individuals who display violent behavior continue to be defined by stigma, judged and labeled, often subsuming the label of “criminal” or “felon.” There is a huge missed opportunity to apply the research, and use science to treat the disease of violence effectively.
If we were to treat this disease effectively, we would save lives, keep families together, and give young people opportunities to turn their lives around—instead of falling victim to the system.
Violence is no different. Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist, tracked the spread of violence throughout communities that were hit the hardest by it. He found that violence spread through the community just like any other contagious disease. He argued, then, that violence could be treated just like any other contagious disease—by interrupting the spread.
The top graph tracks the spread of homicide through a town in Rwanda.
The bottom graph tracks the spread of cholera through a town in Somalia.
You will see that the spread follows the same trajectory, with an almost identical spike. This suggest suggests that homicide—violence—moves like a contagious disease. If we can track the movement, we can apply methods of interrupting the spread of contagious disease to the spread of violence. This is exactly what Slutkin did with street outreach in Cure Violence—but more on that later.
We know what works.
There are several examples of successful violence prevention organizations, and city-wide models of curbing violence.
Gun Violence Reduction Strategy: partnership between law enforcement, social service agency, and community members. Conduct a problem analysis of the nature of violent crime in the city. Identify who the main perpetrators are.
Stage an intervention: law enforcement, community members, and social service agencies provide a very clear choice: we know it’s you doing the shooting. If you stop, we will provide you with intensive help and wraparound services. If you don’t, we’ll hold you responsible.
You have to provide a choice.
And there has to be real opportunity for change.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Americans under age 22.
DEATH BY FIREARM:
54% suicide
43% homicide
>1% mass shootings
“For young black men, homicide accounts for more deaths than the nine other top causes combined.” (Bleeding Out, p. 2)
Black children and teens are 14 times more likely to be murdered with a firearm than white children and teens.
Since 1966, 1,135 persons have been killed in mass shootings. Over that same period, there have been almost a million firearm homicides in total.
(Bleeding Out, Abt)
Nearly eight out of ten homicides involved a firearm.
Firearm Homicide Rates for Males by Age/Race
Communities disproportionately affected by poverty and
systemic inequality suffer the heaviest loss of life due to rising gun violence.
BERKSHIRE COUNTY, MA
In Massachusetts, 10.4% of the population,
and 12.2% of youth live in poverty.
In Berkshire County, 10.9% of the population,
and 15% of children, live in poverty.
(This increases to 32% among Hispanic children,
and to 43% for Black children.)
In Pittsfield, 13.4% of the population lives in poverty.
43.8% are described as “economically disadvantaged.”
In the Westside of Pittsfield, 42.2% of families are below the poverty line
(as compared to 5-6% of Pittsfield as a whole).
The percentage of families in the Westside of Pittsfield living below the poverty line has quadrupled over the last twenty years.
LIFE EXPECTANCY
Life expectancy is lower in neighborhoods affected by: income level, food scarcity, contamination, substance use, and stress, among other factors.
Life expectancy in Pittsfield neighborhoods:
Morningside: 71 years
Westside: 74 years
Other: 83.5 years
HOUSING
In Massachusetts, around 15,507 residents are considered homeless.
(This number has doubled since 1990.)
In Western Massachusetts, about 542 residents are considered homeless, more than double the number of 2007.
On any given night, the approximately 3,000 shelter beds are full.
There are over 420,000 children in foster care in the U.S.
3,800 of them live in Massachusetts.
325 of them live in Berkshire County.
This does not include juveniles who go missing, run away from home, or couch surf.
Overdoses in Pittsfield have increased
nearly 200% in the past 10 years.
MENTAL HEALTH
In 2021, around 36% of Massachusetts youth experienced at least one form of trauma, abuse, or significant stress, with almost 14% experiencing multiple traumas.
Rates of suicide in Berksire County are among the
highest in the state, at 17.4 per 100,000.
28% of Massachusetts Dept. of Mental Health clients were
arrested at some point within a 10-year period,
primarily for non-violent charges.
52% of white individuals with a mental health condition
reported receiving care, compared to
37% of Black individuals and
35% of Latino individuals.
FOOD INSECURITY
In 2021, 12% of children in Berkshire County experienced food insecurity.
Children in Massachusetts experiencing
White households: 16.2% (1 in 7)
Black households: 35.7% (1 in 3)
Latino households: 36.1% (1 in 3)
With 9.9% of the population experiencing food insecurity, Berkshire County ranks third in the state.
29% of those served by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts are children.
Opioid overdose deaths from 2021:
Massachusetts: 32.6 per 100,000
Berkshire County: 62 per 100,000
North Adams: 71 per 100,000
Pittsfield: 88 per 100,000
(Berkshire Regional Planning Commission)
HOW DOES THIS IMPACT EDUCATION?
Children who witness violence experience higher rates of behavioral and mental health problems, challenges in school, and delayed development of cognitive skills.
Pittsfield Public Schools (‘21–’22)…
71.9% of students considered high needs.
65.5% of students considered low-income.
Pittsfield High School…
had a total graduation rate of 86.8%,
which fell to 78.6% for low-income students.
Taconic High School…
26% of the student body was officially disciplined.
79% of those students were low-income.