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This special collection brings together evidence and insights from nonprofits, foundations, and research organizations working to understand the full impact of firearm use and gun violence in the US. By providing us with analyses of current state and federal laws as well as valuable data on suicides, homicides, accidents, and mass shootings, these organizations seek to inform sound public policy and to curb this ongoing public health epidemic.

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"Gun Violence" by M+R Glasgow licensed under CC 2.0

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When Your Best Friend Is Murdered: Experiences of Grief and Trauma with Crew-involved Youth

July 14, 2017

Trauma and Grief are two critical drivers of violence, yet these elements are often missing in discussions concerning youth violence, especially how we understand crews - building-based groups of youth whose conflicts revolve around turf and reputation rather than criminal enterprised.  Understanding the role of trauma and grief offers critical insights into how and why violence is sustained in crew-involved youth. Losing someone to murder is uniquely difficult to process and, disturbingly, crew-involved youth face this life experience frequently.  Death through murder is especially traumatic because death is sudden, horrific, and caused by another person.  Further, youth involved in crews often experience a variety of traumas and stressors throughout their lives.  When trauma symptoms and grief combine, it can lead to an experience known as complicated grieving, which is associated with worse health outcomes and prolonged distress.

Social Media as an Opportunity for Service

May 12, 2017

Social media platforms are popular and serve as a natural extension of our social lives. However, online platforms are emerging as places where people also engage in risky behaviors and express trauma, grief, and emotional distress. This is particularly striking among youth involved in gun violence, whose social media activity often escalates and amplifies real-world violence and illuminates their experiences with grief and trauma.The high visibility of harmful behavior, trauma, grief, and emotional distress on social media gives service providers the opportunity to know exactly who is at the highest risk for committing or being victimized by violence and in greatest need of service. We need to capitalize on this opportunity by giving anti-violence professionals a new method of responding to risky social media use. As modes of communication have changed to favor online spaces, so too must our interventions.Partnering with NYC Cure Violence and researchers from NYU, the Crime Commission developed a multi-tiered intervention model called E-Responder, which aims to intervene with youth on social media, connect them to additional services, de-escalate conflict, and instill long-term life skills in critical areas.Programs like E-Responder are designed to reach out to youth within these virtual spaces of conflict in order to prevent violence. Additional interventions that seek to promote skills and reduce risks with others should capitalize on the opportunity to use social media in their work. In this way we can all ensure that the best strategies and resources are available to young people in the places where they are actively engaged and expressing themselves.

Aiming At Students: The College Gun Violence Epidemic

October 1, 2016

When students and parents consider criteria for choosing a college, campus safety is typically not at the top of the list. But most students and parents probably don't realize that gun violence at colleges has exploded over the past five school years, increasing from just 12 incidents during the 2010-2011 school year to nearly 30 during the 2015-2016 school year—and that the number of shooting victims has also spiked to a disturbing level.Given that studies have shown that gun violence victimization and mere exposure to gun violence can lead to poor academic performance, disruptions at school or work, relationship problems, and lasting emotional distress – and, of course, the physical danger that shootings put students in – it is clear that campus safety needs to become more of a priority.To analyze shooting trends at U.S. colleges, the Crime Commission reviewed 190 incidents at 142 colleges from the 2001-2002 school year through the 2015-2016 school year in which at least one person was intentionally shot (excluding the shooter) on the campus of a two- or four-year college, as well as incidents that occurred within two miles of a college campus, and at least one student was shot.Unsurprisingly, the increase was most profound on colleges in states with increased access to guns. And based on current trends, the problem is likely to become much graver over the next decade. It is imperative that lawmakers, policymakers, college administrators, law enforcement and others begin to have a serious dialogue and enact meaningful reforms to address this epidemic and make America's colleges safe again.

Mayhem Multiplied: Mass Shooters & Assault Weapons

June 1, 2016

Mass shootings have taken place consistently throughout American history, in every region of the country. Over the last 30 years, however, assault weapons and firearms equipped with large- capacity ammunition magazines—which hold more than 10 rounds—have proliferated, allowing assailants to become much more destructive. As the following analysis shows, the results have been deadly for Americans.As part of our non-partisan mission to prevent violence at the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, we track mass shootings. Our Mass Shooting Incidents in America database catalogs shootings in which four or more victims were killed in a public place unrelated to another crime since 1984. Between June 1984 and June 2016, there were 72 such incidents—46 (64%) of which involved a perpetrator armed with an assault weapon or firearms equipped with a large-capacity magazine.Assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines were outlawed for 10 years between 1994 and 2004 as part of the federal Assault Weapons Ban, providing us with periods for comparison in order to determine the ban's impact on mass shooting casualties. The results are startling.Between June 1984 and June 2016, shooters who used assault weapons and large-capacity magazines killed or injured 301% more people than those who did not. There were nearly 1,000 victims in those incidents—186% more killed than when a non-assault weapon or regular- capacity magazine was used, and 523% more injured.Perhaps the most important finding is that the federal ban clearly reduced mass shooting casualties: The number of people killed or injured in mass shootings involving assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines during the decade of the ban was nearly half what it was in the decade before (145 v. 241); and it was a third of the number of casualties since (541 from September 2004 through June 2016).

Statistics & Surveys

Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews - Volume I - Defining the Problem: Crews and Gun Violence

May 20, 2015

The success or failure of community strategies to address the youth gun violence crisis is often attributed in part to how well the problem is understood and diagnosed. With support from The New York Community Trust, the Crime Commission has undertaken an analysis of youth gun violence and crew activity -- violent turf rivalries among less-organized, smaller and normally younger groups than traditional gangs -- in select New York City communities. Our initial findings from available data, existing research and interviews with stakeholders are presented in a series of papers titled, Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews.

Statistics & Surveys

Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews - Volume II - CompStat for Violence Prevention Programs: Collecting Program Specific Data to Manage Performance and Inform Policy

May 20, 2015

The success or failure of community strategies to address the youth gun violence crisis is often attributed in part to how well the problem is understood and diagnosed. With support from The New York Community Trust, the Crime Commission has undertaken an analysis of youth gun violence and crew activity -- violent turf rivalries among less-organized, smaller and normally younger groups than traditional gangs -- in select New York City communities. Our initial findings from available data, existing research and interviews with stakeholders are presented in a series of papers titled, "Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews."

Policy Recommendations & Models; Statistics & Surveys

Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews - Volume III - Responding to the Problem: Coordinating a Continuum of Services

May 20, 2015

The success or failure of community strategies to address the youth gun violence crisis is often attributed in part to how well the problem is understood and diagnosed. With support from The New York Community Trust, the Crime Commission has undertaken an analysis of youth gun violence and crew activity -- violent turf rivalries among less-organized, smaller and normally younger groups than traditional gangs -- in select New York City communities. Our initial findings from available data, existing research and interviews with stakeholders are presented in a series of papers titled, Assessing New York City's Youth Gun Violence Crisis: Crews.

Policy Recommendations & Models