Behavior-Oriented Approaches to Reducing Youth Gun Violence

<p>The United States (U.S.) currently ranks number one in the world in both the quantity of privately owned guns and the rate of private gun ownership. These privately owned firearms, which include rifles, shotguns and handguns, are predominantly owned by middle-aged, 35-54, white men, but the gaps have been steadily closing over the years, especially depending on the type of firearm, in all areas including gender, age, race, education level, political affiliation and geographic location. Gun violence is a leading cause of injury death in the U.S. In examining gun violence and potentially reducing its incidence, this article reviews gun ownership, access and utilization in the U.S., outcomes of gun violence, and the impact of community involvement in reducing gun violence. Specific areas of focus include the current state of background checks, with a focus on mental illness, and the role of medical professionals in guiding gun policy development. Gun violence continues to negatively impact the safety of individuals, families and communities. This article will emphasize the importance of social mobilization in enacting meaningful changes in gun policy and the development of relationships among healthcare professionals, social workers, and community members so as to further reduce and/or prevent gun violence.</p>

Gun Violence as an Obstacle to Educational Equality

the united states is experiencing a very rapid decline in rates of serious violence, and particularly firearm violence. As recently as 1993, America's homicide rate was at a near-historic high; by mid-1999 it was lower than at any time since the mid-1960s, and all indications are that it is continuing to fall. This chapter reviews some of the conditions that led to the increase in rates of firearm violence during the late 1980s and early 1990s and then focuses on some of the most important interventions that have helped reduce gun violence. My discussion is limited to interventions that targeted firearms and firearm violence directly, and mainly to interventions that have been formally evaluated. Many other promising but unexamined interventions are described in a recent report from the Department of Justice (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP]: 1999). The Importance of Guns in Violence Why a chapter focused specifically on firearms? The answers are clear and compelling. The United States has experienced a true epidemic of firearm violence. As I explore later in detail, gun violence accounted for nearly the entire increase, and the more recent decrease, in overall rates of serious violence in the United States (Figure 3.1). Firearm violence remains very common; as recently as 1998, nearly 700,000 violent crimes were committed with firearms (Rennison 1999).

Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is an increasingly popular violence and gun crime prevention program which aims to identify prolific violent offenders, and deter or incapacitate them from offending. While PSN programs generally show moderate effects on violence and gun crime reduction, questions remain about the magnitude and duration of effects given the heterogeneity in treatment applications across PSN programs. This study presents a quasi-experimental evaluation of a cutting-edge PSN initiative on violence and gun crime in Tampa, Florida over a 6-year period. Results indicate that PSN was associated with a 24.4% raw reduction in violence (d = −0.16) and a 24.0% reduction in gun crime rates (d = −0.22) for the treatment agency, while the control groups saw much smaller decreases in violence and gun crime over the same time period. There are several policy implications, as PSN is currently endorsed by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat violence and gun crime, with billions spent to support these programs across the nation. First, this study suggests that the use of an objective scoring criteria comprised a multi-faceted array of evidence-based risk factors to identify the prolific offenders subject to the PSN intervention yields a notable effect on violence and gun crime reduction and unlike other PSN initiatives, this program benefits from not being reliant on more subjective or sweeping approaches to identify potential prolific offenders. Second, this approach was associated with substantial decreases in violence and gun crime over the 3-year follow-up period, but importantly, total arrests in the treatment jurisdiction also decreased. This has potential positive effects for police-community relations, and perceptions of police legitimacy and effectiveness. Finally, the crime reductions in this evaluation were estimated to prevent more than 250 victims of violence and gun crime, and provide support for a new approach for PSN initiatives to replicate in research and practice.

To review the public health approach to preventing and treating firearm violence. Peer-reviewed, published scholarship and federal data systems. English-language, indexed research articles on the epidemiology, risk, prevention, and consequences of firearm violence. This narrative review includes findings related to the epidemiology and impact of firearm violence, focusing on short- and long-term outcomes. Evidence supporting interventions at the individual, agent, and environmental level to reduce firearm-related harm was examined. Firearm violence is a major public health challenge in the Unites States. The consequences of firearm violence reach beyond the nearly 40,000 firearm-related deaths and 90,000 firearm-related injuries each year. Firearm violence, including self-harm, assault, and unintentional injury, affects the health of individuals, families, communities, and health systems. Data sources remain inadequate, however, to fully capture these impacts. Treating firearm violence as a disease and taking a public health approach to prevention and treatment is key to reducing the harms of firearm violence. Using a public health framework not only recognizes the physical and mental consequences of firearm violence but also focuses our attention on underlying causes and on innovative, multi-level interventions to reduce the harms of firearm violence. The public health approach positions clinicians to change the conversation from political diatribe of pro-gun and anti-gun to systematically reducing injury and death. To achieve comparable success, we must design, test, and implement effective interventions at the environmental, policy, technological, and individual levels to prevent firearm violence. We must collect robust data on firearm violence and its consequences. And we must reckon with the conditions of inequality and disadvantage that feed violence through all means.

Many mass shootings have in common a link to violence against women, whether because the shooters targeted women and girls or had histories of perpetrating intimate violence. Drawing on research from across the United States, the chapter argues that preventing mass shootings and other forms of gun violence requires also addressing violence against women. Evidence is presented on the links between gun violence and violence against women, including the use of guns to coerce and control victims as well as in intimate partner homicides. Further, research on the impact of gun policies on intimate violence, including the potential to prevent intimate partner homicides, is considered. The author proposes that adolescent dating violence prevention programs offer an important avenue to curb violence against women and, ultimately, gun violence.

Gun violence is one of the most serious health problems in Brazil. Information on gun deaths and injuries is collected by the Ministry of Health. This data has been used very successfully to inform and design public policies for preventing gun violence. This article analyses the use of public health information by researchers and activists, as well as government officials and the media, to reveal the severity of firearm injuries and deaths and to gain consensus on the need for reforms to national gun laws. It also assesses the resounding ‘no’ vote in a recent disarmament referendum to decide whether to prohibit the sale of guns and ammunition. The results of the Brazilian referendum are a lesson to other countries struggling to deal with high levels of gun violence, showing that it may not always be enough to have data to back up efforts to change policies—as people's decisions around gun ownership and use, as well as their choices regarding security policies, are motivated by a complex interaction of factors.

In the United States (U.S.), elevated levels of firearm violence following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late March 2020 drew attention to efforts taken by law enforcement to reduce and prevent firearm violence through policing innovations. However, it is not well-understood how operational changes in policing during this time impacted these efforts. Our study is the first to consider the perceptions and experiences of law enforcement personnel during the pandemic as it relates to violence reduction and prevention initiatives (VRPIs) and firearm violence, more broadly. By leveraging partnerships between an academic research team and law enforcement practitioners, our action research approach is well-positioned to offer recommendations to support policies and practices that are responsive to emerging crises. While our study is based within the U.S., our focus on the impact of a global phenomenon on firearm violence is of international interest. To this end, an anonymous and voluntary online survey was distributed to both sworn and civilian personnel of the Detroit Police Department (Detroit, Michigan) in August 2020 to understand how the department’s VRPIs and related routine police operations were impacted during the pandemic, and identify potential community and criminal justice system drivers of firearm violence during this time. Our focus on the city of Detroit represents a unique opportunity to explore these connections given the city’s volume of firearm violence, as well as the severity and scope of challenges faced in cities of color. We discuss how our findings can be applied to guide the construction of systems that are more robust against and responsive to external and internal pressures. We also provide several recommendations to guide future research in this area.

The number of jurisdictions implementing focused deterrence strategies targeted at gangs continues unabated. Although recent research suggests positive impacts of the strategy on reductions in gun violence, little is known about the particular mechanisms operating behind the strategy. This article provides a descriptive analysis of the law enforcement activities or levers undertaken after enforcement operations in Philadelphia as a part of the focused deterrence strategy. The article quantifies the execution of levers related to arrest, case processing, and probation sanctioning during enforcement activities after shootings. The results show that Philadelphia achieved success in implementing the enforcement levers as intended, and there was little evidence that arrest practices were overly aggressive. The authors suggest that future evaluations seek to carefully document the wide array of levers used in concert with an assessment of community understanding of and reactions to the strategy as well as an examination of reactions of group members targeted.

Adolescent Gun Violence Shows an Age Group to Focus Trauma Prevention

Chapter 5 - Overview of evidence-based treatments of oppositional defiant disorder

Health agencies and professionals must recognize firearm injuries and deaths as a major health hazard and give proper priority and resources to addressing the problem. VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article by Baker et al. was to assemble broad references to support a thesis that firearms control and regulation were either lacking or poorly implemented. This article was a non-experimental explanation describing how the widespread ownership and use of firearms in American society had a negative impact on public health. METHODOLOGY: The authors followed a nonexperimental review of the literature. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Firearms in the United States were reported as second only to motor vehicles in the number of fatal injuries they inflicted. In 1977, firearms were responsible for 32,000 deaths in this country. They were used in two-thirds of all homicides and also provided the most common vehicle of committing suicide in the United States. Specifically, the authors note that firearms were used in more than half of all suicides. The estimated number of nonfatal injuries caused by firearms ranged as high as 100,000 per year in the U.S. and handguns accounted for three-fourths of firearm related homicides. The increasing availability of firearms was believed to be related to increasing incidence of firearm-related injuries. The Federal Gun Control act of 1968 brought a somewhat higher degree of regulation to firearm use and regulation than was previously available. The Federal Gun Control Act made it unlawful to sell a firearm to a person less than 18 years of age or who had been convicted of certain crimes, was a fugitive from justice, unlawfully used controlled substances, or had been adjudicated as a mental defective. Manufacturers and importers of guns were required by the Federal Gun Control Act to be federally licensed and the law mandated keeping records of gun manufacture data as well as specifying a prohibition on the import of nonsporting categories of firearms. AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors noted that present handgun design maximized the ability to cause serious or fatal injuries with a minimum of effort and planning. They believed the design of handguns should have been regulated to minimize the possibility of inadvertent discharge. Rather than regulation concentrated on the possession and use stages of a firearm's lifecycle more specific regulation of firearms at the manufacturing stage was recommended. This stage would include regulation of both quantities manufactured and product design, and would be more effective in reducing firearm injuries. Also, the authors noted a variety of countermeasures to gun injuries already existed, however they were not being utilized. Specifically, bullets less likely to wound had been developed for police use in crowd control but were not in general use by firearm owners. Finally, the authors recommended that health agencies and professionals recognize firearm deaths and injuries as a major health hazard and acknowledge that higher priorities and resources should be dedicated to addressing the situation. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Firearms Ownership KW - Firearms Control KW - Public Health Approach KW - Public Policy KW - Policy Recommendations KW - Legislation KW - Injury Prevention KW - Firearms Injury KW - Firearms Violence KW - Firearms Homicide KW - Violence Prevention KW - Homicide Prevention KW - Firearms Suicide KW - Suicide Prevention KW - Adult Firearms Use KW - Adult Violence KW - Juvenile Firearms Use KW - Juvenile Violence

Violence interrupters (VI) operate as mediators after gang-involved shootings to stop retributory shootings. While some cities, like Chicago, have seen initial success, other cities, such as Boston, Newark, and Phoenix have seen little or mixed effects. This is the first evaluation of the Washington DC intervention. I use an interrupted time series model to measure the impact the intervention had on the rates of assaults with a gun using DC Crime Incident data. Recognizing that the Covid-19 pandemic is an important confounding event, I also run two time-series control models, a location control, and an outcome control. My findings indicate that the program was not effective in reducing gun violence.

Community perspectives on gun violence and safety: The role of policing in Baltimore City

Gun violence within Latine communities in New Mexico is on the rise and shows no signs of slowing down. The disparities in gun violence experiences mirror the structural and social position factors which negatively and disproportionately impact Latine people. In response to firearm-related deaths nearly doubling over the last decade, New Mexican legislators have been pressured to implement gun violence prevention policies. However well intended, these strategies often fail to address the structural inequities that underlie the rise in gun violence within Latine communities. There is an urgent need for research to better understand the unique experiences of Latine persons and their experiences in both gun violence and prevention. From a social ecological perspective, examining the structural barriers and facilitators which impede Latine involvement in gun violence prevention is critical to interrupting the cycles which render this group more susceptible. A deeper understanding of the factors associated with both gun violence and prevention is crucial for developing informed and culturally sensitive policies and interventions. This conceptual paper explores theory and research to better understand how gun violence impacts Latine communities and creates a conceptual framework to improve healthcare workers’ ability to encourage empowerment and efficacy regarding Latine engagement in gun violence prevention efforts. The objective of this paper is to analyze research from disciplines in the social and health sciences focusing on the experiences of Latine persons and groups experiencing gun violence and engaging in gun violence prevention.