The Art and Science of Urban Gun Violence Reduction: Evidence from the Advance Peace Program in Sacramento, California

Yael Nidam,Jason Corburn,Amanda Fukutome-Lopez

doi:10.3390/urbansci6010006

Yael Nidam, Jason Corburn + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci6010006

Copy DOI

Abstract

Urban gun violence is a critical human health and social justice issue. Strategies to reduce urban gun violence are increasingly being taken out of the domain of police and into community-based programs. One such community-driven gun violence reduction program analyzed here is called Advance Peace. Advance Peace (AP) uses street outreach workers as violence interrupters and adult mentors to support the decision making and life chances of those at the center of urban gun violence. We reported on the impact Advance Peace had on gun violence and program participants in the City of Sacramento, California, from 2018–2019. Using an interrupted time series model, we attributed a gun violence reduction of 18% city wide and up to 29% in one of the AP target neighborhoods from the intervention. We also found that of the 50 participants in the Advance Peace Sacramento program 98% were alive, 90% did not have a new gun charge or arrest, 84% reported an improved outlook on life, all received cognitive behavioral therapy, and 98% reported that their AP outreach worker was one of the most important adults in their life. Advance Peace is a viable community-driven, urban gun violence, and healing-focused program.

Highlights

Urban gun violence is a public health equity issue for communities of color, in the United States [1,2]
We find that too often the ‘science’ of urban gun violence reduction focuses exclusively on measuring if there was an independent effect from the intervention on firearm activities, but fails to document how this work is done or what happens to the lives of participants
We found that Advance Peace invested heavily in their clients in terms of time, engagements, and services, more than we could find in any evaluated urban gun violence reduction program

Summary

Introduction

Urban gun violence is a public health equity issue for communities of color, in the United States [1,2]. Urban gun violence is driven by unaddressed structural racism, including but not limited to government disinvestment in racially segregated neighborhoods, legalized workplace and school segregation, dehumanizing policing, and mass incarceration of people of color. All of these factors have combined to perpetuate intergenerational trauma and gun violence victimization experienced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) [6]. As many commentators have noted, city life breaks down when violence threatens the use of public space and reducing gun violence is viewed as a fundamental characteristic of furthering anti-racist, abolitionist, health promoting, and reparations-focused social and institutional reforms [11,12,13]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion