“It’s African American Communities That Are Bearing The Brunt Of Violence”

1. The victims and suspects of homicides and nonfatal shootings in the District of Columbia are primarily male, Black, and between the ages of 18-34. About 96 percent of victims and suspects in both homicides and nonfatal shootings were Black, despite Black residents comprising only 46 percent of the overall population in the District. Across homicides and shootings, both victims and suspects are demographically similar overall, DC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
2. News reports suggest that the cities where protests and or riots have occurred are being hit the hardest, Governing.Com.
3. It’s African American communities that are bearing the brunt of the violence, NBC News.

4. The rise in violent crime across the U.S. has been concentrated in “low-income communities of color” which have disproportionately experienced the impact of school closures and reductions in basic services during the pandemic, according to a study by the University of California-Davis Violence Prevention Research Program, The Crime Report.

5. There were 722 more homicides in nine U.S. cities last year, according to police data. More than 85% of the increase was in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, The Marshall Project.

6. Black males were overwhelmingly the No. 1 demographic killed in most cities. In Chicago, which tallied the most homicides since 1996, 648 of the city’s 797 homicide victims were Black. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 105 of the city’s 133 homicides were Black males. In Columbus, Ohio, 135 of the city’s 204 homicides were of Black males. In Louisville, Kentucky, 133 of the city’s 197 homicide victims were Black males. In St. Paul, Minnesota, 17 of the city’s 38 homicides were of Black males.

Chicago’s most vulnerable neighborhoods are bearing the disproportionate brunt of gun violence throughout the city, reports the Chicago Tribune. The increases have reached a point where the homicide rate in the most violent parts of the city at the end of 2020 was higher than it was in those places in 1991, a year often considered one of the most violent years in Chicago history. In Los Angeles, 397 people were killed in 2021 — the most in a year since 2007. Hispanic males were the top demographic killed in L.A. last year, 183 in total, in a city that has a much larger Hispanic than Black population, Fox News.

1. Gun violence has particularly affected young people this year. Nearly 300 children ages 11 and younger were killed, and more than 660 were injured, says the Gun Violence Archive. Among teens ages 12 to 17, more than 1,000 were killed, and nearly 3,000 were injured.
2. Gun homicides involving intimate partners rose 25% in 2020, compared with the previous year, to the highest level in almost three decades, newly analyzed FBI data reveals,  The Guardian.

Per the National Institute For Criminal Justice Reform and the D.C. Criminal Justice Coordinating Council examining the skyrocketing number of homicides and shootings in Washington, D.C.:

Approximately 86 percent of homicide victims and suspects were known to the criminal justice system prior to the incident. Among all victims and suspects, about 46 percent had been previously incarcerated.

At least 23.3 percent of all homicide victims and suspects were under active supervision. At least 64 percent of all victims and suspects had been under any prior or active supervision and at least 76% of homicide suspects had active or prior community supervision.

Among all homicide victims and suspects, 13.3 percent were under active supervision by federal parole and probation and 12.4 percent were under active supervision by the federal pretrial services agency (adults in D.C. are supervised by federal agencies).

Where are the best practices for parole and probation agencies as to reducing violence?

Employment

Researchers at RAND decided to study the effects a criminal record has on men in America, publishing their results in the journal Science Advances. They found that by the age of 35, about 64 percent of unemployed men in America have been arrested, and 46 percent have been convicted of a crime.  

Those rates didn’t fluctuate much by race and ethnicity but do reflect the stigma a criminal history carries and the significant barrier to entry individuals face when trying to join the workforce and establish a steady source of income.

What are we doing to limit the impact of a criminal record and employment? Obviously, some offenders will be limited as to opportunities involving working with vulnerable populations but there are tons of jobs they could do (i.e., truck driving, construction, mechanics) that pay well and could have an impact.

The rates of return to crime for adjudicated offenders are astoundingly high. 

Conclusions

There are groups being hammered by violence. We need tailored strategies for the hardest hit. As urban leaders throughout the country have found, they must rely on law enforcement tactics as their lead strategy. The only modality that has a research base indicating less crime is proactive policing.

Mayors are encouraging strategies like violence interrupters or economic development that don’t have a solid base of independent, replicated research indicating that they reduce violent crime. Three violence interrupters in Baltimore have been murdered causing the city to reaccess their efforts.

I provided an example as to the connection between parole and probation and the immense contact they have with homicide victims and shooters in D.C., yet, to my knowledge, there’s nothing within the literature indicating that community supervision agencies have the power to reduce violence.

If college-educated and well-trained parole and probation agents can’t break through the barriers and reduce violence, why do we expect civilian violence interrupters to do any better?

There must be an enhanced research initiative by the federal government to study and stem the flow of increasing violence in hard-hit groups. There has to be a level of cooperation and respect between community residents and law enforcement. Every poll indicates a high level of support for law enforcement in Black and Hispanic communities.

There has to be accountability for criminal offenders from prosecutors and the courts. No accountability means that people take retribution into their own hands which is a driving force in the level of violence we see today. That means more arrests, something called for by mayors throughout the country.

We, and that includes the media, have become immune to the violence occurring in high-crime often minority communities where immense damage is almost ignored.

This can’t be allowed to continue.