No result found
2023-02-16
Rockefeller Archive Center;
Despite calls for the "defunding" of the police and the reimagining of policing following the death of George Floyd in 2020, many New York politicians, in response to rising rates of violent crime, have begun to embrace "law and order." All of this bears a great similarity to the politics of crime and punishment during the governorship of Nelson Rockefeller. Examining several documents in the gubernatorial records of Nelson Rockefeller at the Rockefeller Archive Center, newspaper articles, and public opinion, this report documents the political response to violence and drug addiction in the 1960s and 1970s and compares it to the present, reviewing contrasting arguments of influential Black leaders and "white liberals." It concludes that the present crime context, much like the one during the Rockefeller-era, has divided the left and Black leadership while solidifying Republican commitment to "law and order." It argues that the history of the Rockefeller drug laws illustrates that these divisions and the legitimate fears of working- and middle-class minorities can produce haphazard policies that harm rather than save these communities.
2023-04-24
Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice;
Crime and punishment drive Alabama politics. Every time a major story about crime or violence or prisons breaks in the news, there is backlash from Alabama law enforcement and lawmakers calling for even more punitive measures in response. That backlash often provokes passionate responses from advocacy groups who point toward existing failures in our system of mass incarceration and raise concerns about the likely effects of making our justice system even harsher.A few survivors' voices occasionally rise to the surface. But the people who have the most power to create or change laws and policies in the wake of violence bear little resemblance to the people who are most harmed by it. Meanwhile, the cycle continues. Afterward is an effort to broaden the discourse and bring unheard voices into the conversation where they belong.
2023-04-11
Kaiser Family Foundation;
The latest polling from KFF finds a majority (54%) of U.S. adults have either personally or had a family member who has been impacted by a gun-related incident, such as witnessing a shooting, being threatened by gun, or being injured or killed by a gun. When asked about their own personal experience, one in five report that they have been threatened with a gun (21%), while nearly as many (17%) say they have witnessed someone being shot. Small but important shares report experiencing other gun-related incidents, including 4% who have been injured by a gun, and 4% who have shot a gun in self-defense. The share who have shot a gun in self-defense rises to 18% among adults whose current or past job included the use of guns, such as military or law enforcement work.When asked about their family members, about three in ten adults (31%) say they have a family member who has been threatened with a gun, while a similar share (28%) say a family member has witnessed someone being shot. One in five (20%) adults say a family member has been injured by a gun, and 19% say a family member has been killed by a gun, including death by suicide. About half of deaths (55%) in the U.S. involving guns are suicides.
2023-05-17
Consortium for Risk-Based Firearm Policy;
This report summarizes the connection between alcohol and firearm use, reviews existing state laws, and makes a core set of recommendations for addressing the problem at the state level:Limiting access to firearms by persons with a record of alcohol misuseLimiting access to guns when and where alcohol is consumedIf these policy recommendations are to be effective, it is also important to address the environment where alcohol is sold and consumed. We therefore consider additional policies known to be effective in reducing excessive alcohol consumption and its related harms. In the last section, the report reviews key legal considerations that can help policymakers successfully implement the policies recommended in the report.
2023-06-08
Elsevier;
In this article, we examine anti-refugee hate crime in the wake of the large influx of refugees to Germany in 2014 and 2015. By exploiting institutional features of the assignment of refugees to German regions, we estimate the impact of unexpected and sudden large-scale immigration on hate crime against refugees. Results indicate that it is not simply the size of local refugee inflows which drives the increase in hate crime, but rather the combination of refugee arrivals and latent anti-refugee sentiment. We show that ethnically homogeneous areas, areas which experienced hate crimes in the 1990s, and areas with high support for the Nazi party in the Weimar Republic, are more prone to respond to the arrival of refugees with incidents of hate crime against this group. Our results highlight the importance of regional anti-immigration sentiment in the analysis of the incumbent population's reaction to immigration.
2023-05-17
Everytown For Gun Safety Support Fund;
When we think about gun violence as a public health epidemic, we often think about the numbers: Every day in the United States, 120 people are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded. But what are the experiences behind these metrics? How do survivors and their communities cope in the aftermath of gun violence? What are the immediate and lasting impacts of trauma from gun violence? An understanding of these questions cannot be gained with numbers alone. Far less attention has been dedicated to understanding the experiences of gun violence on survivors. For this reason, this study fills a critical gap in research by focusing on trauma from gun violence by listening to the voices and experiences of those directly impacted.This report is divided into six sections. We discuss the aftermath of gun violence, the impacts of trauma on safety and fear, the ripple effects of gun violence and trauma in communities, support services to cope with trauma, post-traumatic growth, and recommendations to better support survivors of gun violence. We hope to honor the power of the voices of gun violence survivors by elevating their experiences, their stories, and their journeys.
2023-07-01
National Urban League;
Through the work of the National Urban League's Office of the President and EquitableJustice and Strategic Initiatives division, the following report is intended to usher usToward a New Age of Community Safety, where a framework for violence preventionand gun reform is timely, useful, and necessary for our Affiliate network, our movementpartners, and the general public. When we released the 21 Pillars for RedefiningPublic Safety and Restoring Community Trust in 2021, we highlighted the importanceof engaging with communities directly, investing in them, and developing strategiesfor alternative responses to crisis. This New Age framework provides greater context,offering regional comparisons of various community-led movements, programs, andprojects to serve as inspiration for collaboration and partnership no matter where in thecountry you are.Within our report, you will find regional community projects for state and local violenceprevention implementation from the Northeast to Southeast, to Midwest, and West/Southwest. Our lists are intended to be instructive and demonstrative of the growingmovement toward innovative, community-led prevention systems, but is not anexhaustive list of the thousands of efforts borne everyday by leaders in every community.This report also provides legislative and policy context for gun safety and reform on thefederal, state, and local level, and statistical resources that we have found helpful to ourmovement's work in this space.
2023-08-22
California Partnership for Safe Communities;
Violence reduction in the US is benefitting from excellent research (and ongoing research agendas) into specific interventions that can be evaluated and replicated. However, more is needed. The fact that so many cities continue to struggle with serious violence despite record investments in new programs indicates that the field needs a broader approach.There is a crucial gap holding back the field of violence reduction: an understanding of not just what programs or strategies to adopt, but how to manage and govern on the city level to reduce serious violence. This was the primary conclusion of a 2022 expert convening. Running a rigorous violence intervention program in a particular community is very challenging. Assembling, implementing, and sustaining an effective city-level strategy is an even more complex and difficult task. The challenge of developing successful citywide strategies is enormously important, often ignored, and a large part of why cities are failing to sustainably reduce violence. This document describes the group's conclusions and exploration of the current gap in research, implementation, governance, and ongoing management that challenges the violence reduction field, including suggestions of three areas where investment and effort could make a near-term impact.
2023-09-18
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law;
With more guns and more political polarization and violence, states need strong laws to limit risk. In Bruen, the Supreme Court recognized that prohibitions on guns in "sensitive places" — and specifically in "polling places" — were "presumptively lawful." Yet today only 12 states and Washington, DC, prohibit both open and concealed carry of firearms at poll sites. Ironically, the states with the strongest gun regulations — which had restricted the ability to carry guns in public generally, rather than prohibiting guns in particular locations — were made most vulnerable in the wake of Bruen. In fact, only one of the six states that had their laws struck down by the decision specifically prohibited guns in polling places at the time of the decision.Now these states that once had strong general gun laws must scramble to enact new protections for elections. Although some states have banned guns at polling placessince Bruen, there is far more work to do.This report evaluates the new risks that gun violence poses for U.S. elections and proposes policy solutions to limit those risks. Solutions include prohibitions on firearms wherever voting or election administration occurs — at or near polling places, ballot drop boxes, election offices, and ballot counting facilities. In addition, states need stronger laws preventing intimidation of voters, election officials, election workers, and anyone else facilitating voting, with express recognition of the role that guns play in intimidation.Brennan Center for Justice: http://brennancenter.org/Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence: https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/Â
2023-06-28
Pew Research Center;
With total gun-related deaths reaching new highs in recent years, growing shares of Americans view both gun violence and violent crime as very big national problems.Looking ahead, twice as many Americans expect the level of gun violence to increase rather than stay about the same over the next five years (62% vs. 31%). Just 7% say it will decrease.
2023-08-16
Pew Research Center;
Gun owners in the United States continue to cite protection far more than other factors, including hunting and sport shooting, as a major reason they own a gun.And while a sizable majority of gun owners (71%) say they enjoy having a gun, an even larger share (81%) say they feel safer owning a gun.A Pew Research Center survey, conducted June 5-11 among 5,115 members of the Center's nationally representative American Trends Panel, finds:72% of U.S. gun owners say protection is a major reason they own a gun. That far surpasses the shares of gun owners who cite other reasons.
2023-07-27
Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium;
The mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, happened over two decades ago, yet it remains etched in the national consciousness. To this day, communities still are struggling to find solutions to the complex and multifaceted nature of mass shootings. Understanding the unique context of the mass public shootings phenomenon is necessary for policymakers, practitioners, and other vested stakeholders to work to reduce these incidents and their impacts. This brief provides updated analyses from the last two years (2021–22), building on previous work by the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium to identify trends and broader considerations related to mass public shootings.