Abstract for: Tackling Gun Violence: a Community-Based Systems Approach

In the U.S., firearm violence claims the lives of over 15,000 people each year, with firearm assaults disproportionately concentrated within neighborhoods where more racial and ethnic minorities live. At the root of these neighborhood conditions are generational impacts of structural racism, including redlining policies and mass incarceration. Such structural barriers have contributed to systemic disinvestment and disruption of community bonds through the lack of home ownership and diminished neighborhood cohesion. We conducted 3 group modeling building (GMB) workshops, convening 14 stakeholders from diverse sectors, including education, housing, healthcare, youth mentoring, community-based organizations that support victims and perpetrators of firearm violence, and residents of neighborhoods with high rates of firearm violence. Participants collaboratively mapped causal relationships among factors influencing the number of people affected by gun violence. We then performed stakeholder analyses to prioritize targeted interventions to mitigate firearm violence. The GMB sessions produced an initial causal map identifying 37 interconnected variables influencing the number of people affected by gun violence in the community. These variables emerged within 7 themes: socioeconomic status, addiction, mental health, social cohesion, the criminal-legal system, gang influence, and gun policy. Through stakeholder engagement, we assessed potential intervention points and prioritized 3 themes—socioeconomic status, mental health, and social cohesion—as primary focus areas for intervention. Our qualitative map names and contextualizes relationships among multiple contributors to the issue of firearm violence across multiple sectors and identifies intervention points. The next steps of the project involve further simplifying the CLD. Additionally, we will attempt to develop a quantitative model based on it, using various data sources, including neighborhood-level data on gun assaults and data on community well-being and social cohesion.