Community Gun Violence is one of the most serious issues facing US cities today. It is not only responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries every month—it hinders education, limits the effectiveness of city services, drives disinvestment in neighborhoods, and destroys the trust of residents in their government. It is also an enormous engine of inequality—the consequences of violence fall particularly heavily on disadvantaged communities and communities of color.
We also have evidence that we can reliably reduce community gun violence in the near term. This brief is about an approach that has the strongest research track record of successfully reducing violence at a neighborhood level (and citywide). We refer to this approach as Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS).
The best of these strategies pursue three simultaneous goals:
• Reduce crime and violence in communities.
• Reduce arrests and improve outcomes for community members at highest risk of violent crime.
• Improve community-government relations.
Group Violence Reduction Strategy Policy Brief
Ben Struhl, Jeremy Biddle, Jessica Bimstein, Alexa Mason, Vaughn Crandall, Reygan Cunningham, and Marina Gonzalez (September 2024)
