“It's About Survival”: Resilience Strategies Among Justice-Involved Black Men Exposed to Violence and Trauma

Abstract

This study draws on interviews with 20 low-income Black men to understand how they enact and maintain resilience over the course of their lives. Guided by Payne’s (2011) sites of resilience theoretical framework, this study offers a more comprehensive understanding as to how Black men maintain resilience while experiencing ongoing exposure to violence and trauma. In the absence of external resources, some men rested on their cultural assets provided by religion; while in response to structural violence, other Black men enacted resilience through gang membership, crime, and interpersonal violence. Additionally, we provide a nuanced discussion as to how participants engage in multiple resiliency strategies, that in some cases may appear contradictory. Black men engaged in these behaviors with the hopes of preserving their safety—both physically and psychologically, in a society that has never been interested in keeping them safe.