You wouldn’t bring in a brain surgeon to treat a head cold, nor would you make a nutritionist singularly responsible for someone with a heart condition. And yet our approach to addressing youth violence in the city too often provides generic and isolated responses where tailored and collaborative ones would be more effective.
Investments aimed at violence prevention efforts are spread across youth development programs that serve low-income youth who, while in need of robust programs and supports to fulfill their potential, are not at risk for gun violence. Using such a general approach means that when everyone is a priority, no one is a priority.
Interestingly, Yale sociologist Andrew Papachristos found that the majority of nonfatal gunshot episodes in Chicago from 2006 to 2014 were attributable to less than 5 percent of the city’s population. From a variety of inputs, the number of youth we need to impact to significantly reduce violence is achievable. There is no question that this acutely high risk group is often harder to reach and harder to engage – and that’s exactly why they require our focus.
[For more on this story by Dr. Toni Irving, go to https://chronicleofsocialchang...search-chicago/31624]
Comments (0)