School of Public Health and Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Advance Peace, Richmond, CA, USA.
J Urban Health. 2022 Aug;99(4):626-634. doi: 10.1007/s11524-022-00660-4. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
The years 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed increases in firearm violence in many cities across the USA. We present data from Sacramento, Stockton, and Richmond, California that suggests firearm homicides during the pandemic did not increase in all communities or disproportionately burden the African American community. More specifically, we found that in these cities, there was a 5-52% decrease in gun homicides during the 2020/2021 period compared to the 2018/2019 period for neighborhoods with a gun violence prevention program operating there. We also found a 24-83% reduction in gun homicides in census tracts with > 20% Black populations in Sacramento and Stockton during the 2020/2021 period compared to the 2018/2019 period. In two cities, there was a 15-42% decrease in the number of African American men under 35 years old that were victims of a gun homicide in 2021 compared to 2018. We also found that the gun violence program operating in these cities called Advance Peace interrupted 202 street-level conflicts where guns were present across the three cities in 2020/2021 compared to 178 of the same conflicts in 2018/2019. These interruptions likely saved hundreds of lives and we estimate contributed to between US $65 and $494 million in savings. Advance Peace is a program that engages those at the center of gun violence, frequently young, Black men under 35 years old, and offers them the Peacemaker Fellowship, an intensive, 18-month program of 24/7 mentorship, social services, and life opportunities. The program is delivered by community resident "credible messengers," who conduct the mentorship and interrupt conflicts in the streets. While these findings are descriptive and preliminary, we know of no other program that was in operation before and during the pandemic in each of these cities that engaged the hard-to-reach but highly influential population at the center of gun violence.
在 2020-2021 年 COVID-19 大流行期间，美国许多城市的枪支暴力事件有所增加。我们提供了来自加利福尼亚州萨克拉门托、斯托克顿和里士满的数据，这些数据表明，在所有社区或不成比例地给非裔美国人社区带来负担的情况下，大流行期间的枪支凶杀案并没有增加。更具体地说，我们发现，在这些城市，与 2018-2019 年相比，在有枪支暴力预防计划的社区，2020-2021 年期间枪支凶杀案减少了 5-52%。我们还发现，在萨克拉门托和斯托克顿，2020-2021 年期间，在黑人人口超过 20%的普查地段，枪支凶杀案减少了 24-83%。在这两个城市，2021 年，35 岁以下的非裔美国男性枪支凶杀案受害者人数比 2018 年减少了 15-42%。我们还发现，在这两个城市，名为“推进和平”的枪支暴力项目在 2020-2021 年期间干预了三个城市共 202 起有枪支存在的街头冲突，而 2018-2019 年则有 178 起相同的冲突。这些干预措施可能挽救了数百人的生命，我们估计为这三个城市节省了 6500 万至 4.94 亿美元。“推进和平”项目是一个针对枪支暴力核心人物的项目，这些人通常是 35 岁以下的年轻黑人男性，他们提供“和平缔造者奖学金”，这是一个为期 18 个月、24/7 的导师制、社会服务和生活机会的强化项目。该项目由社区居民“可信信使”实施，他们进行导师指导，并在街头中断冲突。虽然这些发现是描述性和初步的，但我们不知道在这些城市中的任何一个城市，在大流行之前和期间，还有其他项目针对枪支暴力核心的难以接触但极具影响力的人群开展工作。
