Class Slide Deck (All Chapters) Flashcards
How is rape considered a crime of violence?
> Visceral (instinctual) reaction as rape.
Violation of the most intimate kind.
strikes at our identities as women and men
is the ultimate assaultive crime
“Rape strips its victim of her power to make determinations about perhaps the single most intrinsic value in her existence: the right to share intimacy.”
What are misunderstandings of rape?
– Perceive - crime only against women.
– Think - only in terms of forced intercourse
The national Violence Against Women & Men Survey that suggests that there are how many victims of rape occur annually?
> Over 900,000 men and women over the age of 18 - victims of rape annually.
Are police reports reliable for rape?
> less reliable police reports available in most cases
> Most of the research is not focused on exclusively police reports - if we focused on UCR data, (it is less likely to be reported) we would not have an accurate number.
> more likely to bring in rape victimization surveys to understand prevalence (self reports are good but surveys are better)
Most victims, less than 3 out of 10, report victimization. They are reluctant because:
– Intimate nature
– Fear of retaliation
– Fear of not being believed
– Shame, embarrassment, and social stigma
– Fear of being victimized by justice system (2nd rape) – revictimization by CJS
Demographic Factors from
the NCVS:
– Younger people had the highest rates of rape - 16 to 19 years - greatest risk
of rape.
– By the age of 35, the risk of rape decreases significantly - remains low levels
throughout life course.
– Income also appears to be related to rape victimization.
– Lower incomes - increased risk of victimization
College Women and Rape - what do we know?
- Women attending college - greater risk for rape, sexual assault
– Nearly 5% of college women victimized in any given year.
– Every 1,000 women attending college - may be 35 incidents of rape in a given academic year.
– Sampled 6,000 students from 32 colleges and found 53% reported some sort of unwanted sexual contact.
– 15% had been victimized by rape, and 12% an attempted rape.
> Part of the can vary due to lifestyle (i.e. you are more likely to come into contact with more people/socialization when going to college)
What can be said about the assailants for college rape?
> Most victims know their assailants.
– 9 out of 10 offenders were known to the victim - NCWSV study, Koss found 83% of
victims knew assailant.
– Majority of offenders were classmates, friends, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends.
Where were the majority of college rapes perpetrated and how were they facilitated?
> Majority of rapes, on or off campus, took place in residences.
> Facilitated - variety of drugs
Prison Rape- what is it?
– Rape and sexual assaults against inmates that occur in correctional facilities
– Perpetrated by other inmates and/or correctional staff
What prevents reports of prision rape?
> Convict culture - prohibits snitching and precludes victims’ reporting
> “Snitches” or “rats” who inform on other inmates are considered the lowest members of the inmate hierarchy.
What report is infamous for prison rape?
> Human Rights Watch testimony from over 200 prisoners in 37 states and published “No Escape: Male Rape in Prison.”
What law was enacted for prison rape?
– Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003
– Requires data collection on sexual assault
Rape and the U.S. Military: what did the Survey for active-duty men, women by Rand Corporation for DOD find about women and unwanted sexual contact in the past year? Who was it reported to?
- women’s unwanted sexual contact in past year declined from 6.1% 2012 to 4.3% in
2014.
– (53%) female victims - reported attacks to military authority - perceived social
retaliation, perceived adverse administrative action (35%) or professional
retaliation (32%)
- The DOD stands for the Department of Defence.
Genocide and Rape- how does it connect to war? Provide some examples;
– Rape as a byproduct of war, population annihilation, and ethnic cleansing
– Women - “spoils of war.”
– Widespread brutal rape of Tutsi women in Rwanda
– International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted Jean Paul Akayesu in 1998
– Serbian “ethnic cleansing” efforts
What kind of phenomenon is rape?
– Rape is varied phenomenon, rapists heterogeneous group.
– No single theory is going to explain all rape.
– Studies - interviews with convicted rapists in prison can not be generalized to
all rapists
Rapists commit crimes for variety of reasons, but three themes seem to run through all of them
– Power
– Anger
– Sexuality
How does power and dominance play into rape? What is the evidence for it?
– Marital or intimate partner rape: is perpetrated against 10% to 14% of all married women and accounts for a quarter of all rapes. Many suggest that this form of rape is often accompanied by additional forms of domestic violence and involves a male perpetrator using sexual violence to maintain power and control.
– Evidence from research with primates - the work of Robert Sapolsky, who did extensive fieldwork with baboons living in the wild, witnessed rapes among baboon communities.
One such classification scheme divides rapists into four broad types:
1) Power reassurance
2) Anger retaliation
3) Power Assertive
4) Sadistic
what is the power reassurance rape? (What is the individual that perpetrates it like?)
> suffers from low self-esteem, feelings of being inadequate and, in the act of rape, tries to achieve a sense of personal empowerment
What is the anger retaliation rape? (What is the individual that perpetrates it like?)
> feels a tremendous amount of hostility toward women and consequently uses rape as a vehicle of revenge
What is the power assertive rape? (What is the individual that perpetrates it like?)
> individuals achieve a powerful feeling of being in control and of
having the power of life or death over their victims
What is the Sadistic rape? (What is the individual that perpetrates it like?)
> displays extreme violence and cruelty; revels in the pain and humiliation that
inflicted on their victims
Power and Dominance- what are feminist components?
– Violence against women - expression - patriarchal social structure. (both sexual and non-sexual)
– Subjugation of women built into organization of society.
– Socialization encourages males to associate aggression and virility with masculinity and women to adopt submissive/passive roles.
– Traditional sex roles - rape is an act of social control, an extension of normative male behavior that defines the traditional male sex role and is integral to the historical powerlessness of women in male-dominated societies.
What are some Recent Legislations to Combat Sexual Violence?
– Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act.
– Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.
– Residential proximity.
What is the effect of a sex-offender registry?
– No decline after registries were introduced.
- the results indicate that incidents of sexual violence did not decline after such registries were introduced.
- Findings revealed that neither future arrests nor future convictions were reduced for those offenders required to register
– Examination of sex offender legislation
What is the #MeToo movement?
– Found by Tarana Burke; heels of #NotOkay.
- The #MeToo movement did not come to the forefront of public consciousness until several women alleged that movie producer, Harvey Weinstein, had raped them in October of 2017.
– Decrease prevalence of sexual assault.
- about 30% of those who have tweeted the hashtag are men.
What are the conclusions of rape?
– Rape is not a rare event.
– Sexual assault is used a tool of violence, power, and
dominance.
– As the law stands, the vast majority of assailants will never
be punished.
When the criminal code was amedned in Canada in 1982 - rape was abolished and replaced with what? What was the reasoning?
> ape was abolished and replaced with “sexual assault”
> the thinking was to more closely align rape with assault - the focus was on hammering home the idea home that rape is as far away from sex and that it is more akin to a brutal horrifc assault on another human being.
What is the most reliable information on rape victimization?
> social scientific surveys
In relation to rape, what does the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) do?
> The only survey that monitors rape and sexual assault on an annual basis is the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS).
> The questions used to uncover rape are probably the least behaviorally specific.
> In addition to directly asking respondents whether they have experienced “any rape, attempted rape, or other type of sexual attack,” they also ask the following: Incidents involving forced or unwanted sexual acts
What is the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990? Why was it passed?
> This legislation mandates that colleges and universities participating in federal student aid programs “prepare, publish, and distribute, through appropriate publications and mailings, to all current students and employees, and to any applicant for enrollment upon request, an annual security report.” Title II of Public Law 101–542.
> Part of the can vary due to lifestyle (i.e. you are more likely to come into contact with more people/socialization when going to college)c
Because of the increased vulnerability to rape and other crimes faced by college students, the US Congress passed the Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act of 1990.
What is the “invisible war”
> is a groundbreaking investigative documentary about one of America’s most shameful and best kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military.
What are “spoils of war”
> term is often used to explain some type of ‘benefit’ to the attacker/the other side engaged in war during a genocide (in this case barbaric, violent, viscous act of brutality by raping the ‘enemies’ women and children).
What is sexual trespass and who coined it?
> Susan Brownmiller explains that women are raped in war by ordinary youths as casually, or as frenetically, as a village is looted or gratuitously destroyed.
> Sexual trespass on the enemy’s women is one of the satisfactions of conquest.
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Testimonies from survivors in recent times confirm: Rape is what in relation to war?
> extremely widespread and that hundreds of thousands of victims across the globe have been individually raped, gang-raped, raped with objects, held in sexual slavery, or sexually mutilated during contemporary wars and ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla explain the power and dominance behind rape:
> Males are taught to have expectations about their level of sexual needs and expectations for corresponding female accessibility which function to justify forcing sexual access.
> The justification for forced sexual access is buttressed by legal, social, and religious definitions of women as male property and sex as an exchange of goods.
> Socialization prepares women to be “legitimate” victims and men to be potential offenders.
What is the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act of 1996? What did it mandate?
> Another legislative addition passed by Congress was this act, in memory of a victims’ rights activist who died in the TWA Flight 800 crash off the coast of Long Island, New York.
> This act mandated the creation of a national database of convicted sex offenders designed to track offenders as they moved from state to state and cover for states not in compliance with the Wetterling Act.
What is the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act?
> passed by the US Congress in 2006 it mandated a number of changes, including expanding the definition of jurisdiction to include federally recognized American Indian tribes and expanding the number of sex offenses that must be captured by registrations.
> The Adam Walsh Act also established a new office within the US Department of Justice to administer the standards for sex offender notification and registration called the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART).
Residential proximity appear to matter so little with regard to sexual reoffending: Much has to do with the patterns of sexual offending in general. Sex offenders are more likely to do what?
> much more likely to victimize someone they know.
One of the most common victim–offender relationships of this study for those who victimized children was that:
> a male offender developing a romantic relationship with a woman who had children.
> They used their relationships with these women to gain access to their victims or through babysitting for an acquaintance or co-worker.
Chrysanthi Leon concluded that all sex offenders, regardless of the contextual circumstances of their crimes, are now classified as what?
> “monsters” requiring confinement, which prioritizes the public’s belief “that all sexual offending is harmful, dangerous, and caused by deviant desires that are compulsive and beyond control.”
What is the hope of the MeToo movement?
> The hope is that as a society, these posts and movements might decrease individual perceptions that this predatory behavior is going to be tolerated.
How is the MeToo movement an informal social control?
> Offending behavior made public on social media not only has the potential of resulting in formal sanctions by the courts, but also involved public shaming, which is a form of informal social control.
How is the MeToo movement a formal social control?
> Which involves formal law enforcement sanctions, informal social control sanctions do not involve the criminal justice system.
> They are meted out by our family, friends, places of employment, and so on.
Which informal controls are just as strong as formal controls?
> For example, shaming, loss of status in society, careers etc.
> Importantly, research shows that informal sanctions like these are just as powerful as formal sanctions in deterring criminal behavior.
Why can MeToo movements decrease rape prevalence?
> Movements like these may decrease prevalence of sexual assault for several reasons including by changing social attitudes about what behavior is appropriate and by increasing the costs, both formal and informal, of engaging in such behavior.
What is a primary homicide?
> involved intimates, friends, and acquaintances (killed by)
> the most common type
> the least talked about
What is a secondary homicide? What did Marvin Wolfgang also call this?
> involved strangers (killed by)
> He also coined the phrase stranger crime for this latter category.
> they are the most talked about homicides
> people are most fearful of this type
> the most rare kind of homicide (Compared to primary)
Crimes that are most likely to be committed by strangers include what?
> Include robbery, workplace violence including bank robbery, and street gang violence.
Marvin Wolfgang divided homicide into two categories - what are they?
> primary homicides + secondary homicides
How does the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) define Robbery?
> “Completed or attempted theft, directly from a person, of property or cash by force or threat of force, with or without a weapon, and with or without injury.
Robbery occurs in different contexts, including:
> including homes, public locations, and commercial establishments.
Sometimes robbery involves offenders known to their victims, but more often it is the case of what?
> involves strangers, and the dynamics of each robbery event can vary dramatically.
What do robberies often escalate to?
> often escalate to murder
What are the two threatening elements of robbery?
What is burglary? What kind of crime is it?
> an act in which an offender(s) breaks into a residence and steals a homeowner’s belongings, is a property crime because there is no force or threat of force to a person
Can a burglary become a robbery?
> A burglary can become a robbery if an offender finds someone in the house and uses or threatens to use force against that person during the commission of the crime.
What demographic is most likely to experience burglary? Are the rates of robbery stable?
> young adults
rates have remained stable
Marital status and geographical location are also related to robbery victimization - how so?
> Those living in urban locations are more likely to experience a robbery compared with either their suburban or rural counterparts.
> Being single, either through never marrying or being divorced or separated, also increases the risk of robbery.
Equally likely to occur in the daytime as at night: what are the rates out of 10?
> Over four in ten robberies occur at or near a personal residence, while just over half of all robberies occur in public spaces.
What are three elements that robbery can involve?
> theft
violence
self-protective action
What is robbery sometimes referred to as?
> sometimes referred to as muggings or stickups.
What is the common motivation to commit robbery?
> satisfy immediate/illicit gratification need
What did Richard Wright and Scott Decker, who interviewed over 80 active robbers in St. Louis, Missouri, find out about the motivation for those that have committed robbery?
> Richard Wright and Scott Decker, who interviewed over 80 active robbers in St. Louis, Missour
How does Elijah Anderson’s code of the streets relate to robbery?
> One of the “codes” is protecting one’s honor and reputation against acts of disrespect, even with violence if necessary.
What did Wright and Decker believe robbery was to an individual that commits robbery?
> “an open-ended quest for excitement and sensory stimulation,” which tends to include things such as gambling, drug use, and heavy drinking.
Researchers have found that what elements of street culture prompt robbery?
> outward appearances, dress, and accessories, are also an important part of street culture
> some commit robbery to buy status items like the correct brand-named clothes and accessories, like jewelry.
Why do people engage in robbery?
> can provide a “rush” or thrill: thrill/danger posed by victimizing someone who might fight back or who could be armed may provide adrenaline rush.
> Possibly empowering, sense of mastery and dominance part of motivation for the offender.
> Some engage in violence to fulfill survival needs (money / essential needs like food)
>
What was the sample of robbers like in Wright and Decker’s study? What did they claim would stop them from committing robbery?
> all unskilled and poorly educated
> menial with low pay or opportunity for advancement or status
> claimed that they would stop robbing if they were given a good job.
What does Cohen and Felson’s Theory of Routine Activities Theory argue? Is it a valid theory?
> argue that if these three components come together in time and space, they make for the ‘perfect storm’ for criminality to take place.
> The theory and its conceptual frameworks have been tested many times and been found to be a strong theory (valid, reliable and generalizable) that can be applied for different types of crime and, crime victims.
What are the three components of Cohen and Felson’s Theory of Routine Activities Theory argue? What also happens with these three components?
> Suitable target
> Capable guardians
> Motivated criminals/offender
> when all three have physical convergence in time and space = robbery occurs / is more likely to occur.
> if you remove one of these components = reduce the odds of crime occuring (Robbery)
What is a “suitable target” according to the routines activity theory?
> Perception of target vulnerability.
> As potential criminals go about their daily activities, they may encounter targets of illegal opportunity: an empty carport, an open door, an unlocked car, a bike left on the street.
> Corner homes, especially those near traffic lights or stop signs, are more likely to be burglarized.
> Secluded homes, such as those at the end of a cul-de-sac, surrounded by wooded areas, also make suitable targets.
What is a Capable guardian according to routine activities theory?
> In routine activities theory, the presence of police, homeowners, neighbours, and others, which can have a deterrent effect on crime. Can take the form of an individual (neighbours) or something inanimate (like a light on at the front porch)
What is a motivated criminal/offender according to the Routines activity theory?
> The potential offenders in a population.
> According to rational choice theory, crime rates will vary according to the number of motivated offenders.
> Typically are young males, homeless, disenfranchised, and unemployed.
Robbers often use what to get their victims to comply?
> violence or the threat of violence to get victims to comply
Lindegaard, Bernasco, and Jacques describe a robbery event as beginning when what occurs? When can physical injury / force can occur?
> beginning when “the offender makes the victims aware they are being robbed, and its progression, the subsequent flow of events until the offender leaves the scene.”
> Physical force and injury can occur during any stage in their model.
What do Robbers do during robberies to also increase victim compliance?
> Announce stickup and establish dominance and control
According to Wright and Decker, most offenders typically opened their armed robberies with what? How did they conduct the robbery?
> typically opened their armed robberies with a demand that victims stop and listen to them and then quickly summarize the situation for the victim
> The majority of assailants also used a gun, the bigger the better.
> If a potential victim refused to comply, the robbery offenders most often responded with brutality.
> armed robberies that resulted in the death = rare and the vast majority of offenders never intended to seriously injure, much less kill, their victims.
What does victim resistance increase the likelihood of?
> increases likelihood that robber will use physical force against intended target.
Jody Miller: analyzed 14 interviews with active female robbers from Wright and Decker’s sample. She found that the most common form of female robbery was what? What should be noted about this result?
> was to rob other females in a physically confrontational manner
> NOTE: small sample size.
Miller’s research does reveal some interesting gender differences in robbery offending - what has been found?
> found that the motivations for robbery were essentially the same for male and female robbers;
> however, their modus operandi was different.
- commit robberies to party/pursue rather than for pleasures
- rarely ambushed their target
What kind of problem did Simon Hallsworth believe street robbery was?
> street robbery problem of a society that induces young people to desire and covet the very goods associated with the ‘good life’.
What does the Institutional theory of anomie state about robbery?
> if all citizens had equal access to a quality education and a good job that would allow them to provide a good life for themselves and their families, rates of robbery would most certainly decrease.
What does the Cost-benefit analysis of robbery involve?
> a majority of robbers may anticipate getting arrested in the future, they may not perceive this as a real threat or cost.
- sometimes they overestimate the likelihood of the benefit and underestimate the risk/cost to the consequences
- or sometimes they are right.
What does robbery have a strong connection to?
> strong connection between robbery + the state of the economy
> Offenders lives spent on the street, riddled with insecurity, poverty, disorganization, and addiction.
Recommendation that penalties for robbery be increased? What are the penalties like now?
> Penalties for robbery are already very extreme.
For the crime of murder, convicted robbers are more likely to be sentenced to what?
> prison compared with offenders convicted of other crimes of violence, including rapists.
What does situational crime prevention entail?
> technical and structural solutions to crime and in response design environments or products in ways that minimize the risk of victimization.
> Measures such as installing cameras in crime-prone areas are among such techniques.
What are the programs committed to reducing street robbery most similar to?
> similar to capable guardianship from routines activity theory
What were bank robberies used to be seen as? What occured during this time when bank robberies were most common?
> banks associated with big business and government authority so people felt just in robbing them
> Poverty, job loss, foreclosures, and hopelessness were prevalent, many bank robbers were seen as underdogs fighting a cruel and unjust system.
Do bank robberies get media attention? Are they common?
> rarely get media attention
> Despite the lack of media coverage and more sophisticated security systems, bank robberies are still relatively common.
In order, what are the most common bank robberies by type of institution in 2018?
1) commerical bank 91%
2) Credit unions 7%
3) Unknown + savings/loans (both 1%)
4) Armored carrier + mutual savings bank (0% each)
In order, what is the most to least common frequency of bank robberies by day?
1) Friday
2) Monday
3) Thursday
4) Tuesday
5) Wednesday
6) Saturday
7) Sunday
Who are the majority of street robberies committed by?
> majority committed by males: females represented about 8% of all offenders.
Most bank robberies involve:
> individual waiting in line for a teller,
> passing note to teller letting teller know bank is being robbed.
> Happens very quickly, most customers usually don’t even know a robbery is taking place.
What is a Takeover robbery?
> involves several armed individuals seizing control of a bank.
> Risks are greater, potentially larger payoff.
What are other workplace fatalities?
> transportation accidents, fires and explosions, accidental hits by machinery or other equipment, falls, slips, trips, and exposure to toxic substances.
People in health professions (mental health workers, nurses) relatively at high risk: in particular what kind of worker?
> those who work in emergency rooms.
> Makes sense when we realize that people admitted to emergency rooms are often high or intoxicated, suffering from mental illness, or going through withdrawals and detoxing, all of which can increase the risk of violent assault.
Are men or women more likely to be killed on the job?
> Females, more likely to be murdered on job compared to their male counterparts:
- Women on the job were most likely to be killed by an intimate, an ex, or some other family member, followed by robbers, and co-workers.
> Compare this to males, whose relatives perpetrated the crime in only 2% of cases. (usually killed by someone unknown to them or a robber)
Differential risk of particular types of violence varies across different occupations: Specifically, people in what kind of occupation are more likely to be killed robberies? How about assault victimizations?
> people in retail sales have the highest risk for robbery victimization, while law enforcement personnel have the highest assault risk.
not all retail sales positions are at equal risk for violence - what do the stats say?
> Even within job categories, however, risks can vary.
> Statistics indicate that within retail sales positions, bartenders appear particularly vulnerable to workplace violence, as do gas station attendants.
> Also, while those in law enforcement appear to be especially vulnerable to violence on the job, police officers are over twice as likely to be victimized as corrections officers.
Jobs can also vary by what other factor?
> Jobs located in high crime areas heighten the risk as well:
> A position that requires an employee to be out and about in the community especially at all hours of the day and night makes the job a bit more dangerous.
> When your job requires that you work with high risk populations, including criminal justice involved individuals or those with mental health issues, this also increases the risk of being victimized.
National Gang Center: Sponsored by the US Department of Justice, uses the following criteria for classifying groups as gangs:
1) The group has three or more members, generally aged 12–24.
2) Members share an identity, typically linked to a name, and often other symbols.
3) Members view themselves as a gang, and they are recognized by others as a gang.
4) The group has some permanence and a degree of organization.
5) The group is involved in an elevated level of criminal activity.
What gangs are excluded from the National Gang Center criteria?
> These criteria exclude other types of gangs that are typically more organized and composed of older adults, including prison gangs, motorcycle gangs, and other organized crime gangs.
Is there a single definition for gangs?
> There is no single accepted definition of a “gang” in general: The issue is that other terms are often used interchangeably with gang, including street gang, youth gang, and so on.
Where does the majority of street gang violence take place?
> Here we see as might be expected, the majority of gang violence and gang activity occurs in urban settings - large cities (to a lesser degree in small cities / suburbs / rural areas)
What is the main reason to join a street gang? What are other reasons?
> One study found that the need for protection is the main reason members gave for joining.
> Other common reasons: wanting to feel safe, wanting to be respected and wanting to belong.
Yasser Payne: argues adapting to street life is what?
> a “site of resilience” that emerges as a function of blocked economic and educational opportunity.
In some cities, gang violence represents a larger proportion of all violence than in other cities: For example- what are some “gang capitals”?
> in the so-called gang capitals of the United States, Chicago and Los Angeles, about half of all homicides are gang related.
what is the breakdown of percentages for gang-related homicdes by geographic area 2012?
1) Large cities = 67%
2) Suburban = 17%
3) Small cities = 11%
4) Small areas = 5%
Another important element related to gang violence in certain cities is what? Is it clear in how the two are related?
> cities is drug-related activity, but it is not clear how it is related.
> Some contend that the illicit drug trafficking and sales conducted by gangs is what increases violence, while others contend both drugs and gang activity are caused by the preexisting conditions of social disorganization and economic disadvantage.
What other type of conflict is related to gang violence?
> Conflict between rival gangs is also related to gang violence.
> This violence, which includes homicides, is frequently the result of several conflict-related circumstances, including maintaining turf, defending one’s identity as a gang member, defense of the gang’s honor and reputation, and revenge or retaliation.
What overall goal are programs against preventing gang violence connected to?
> Connected with an overall goal of reducing juvenile delinquency in general
> cannot be effective without considering larger community and societal contexts in which gangs exist.
> For example, providing conflict resolution training along with educational and/or vocational training.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) developed Comprehensive Gang Model to reduce gang crime - what is this model?
> Comprehensive Gang Model is designed to reduce gang crime in targeted neighborhoods using interventions that had been shown to work in addressing individual, family, and community factors that contributed to juvenile delinquency and gang activity.
Cure Violence: Views violence from a public health perspective - what are the three components?
1) The goal of this program is to reduce homicides by identifying youth who are most at risk of being shot or shooting someone else.
2) Trained mediators, who are often former gang members, mediate conflicts between gang-involved youth both in the streets and in hospital emergency rooms.
3) Experimental evaluations indicate that it did significantly reduce homicides in the vast majority of cities in which it was implemented.
Are programs against gang violence effective? What are the underlying factors from which gang members are created?
> While this and similar programs have shown promise, it is important to remember that they do not change the underlying factors from which gang members are created,
> which include structural disadvantage, blocked educational and economic opportunities, and alienation from the larger society, schools, and often their own families.