GVPanorama: The 60-Year-Old Book That Can Help Cities Reduce Gun Violence
Both the left and the right overlook a key factor that makes shootings less likely
While on the search for recent gun violence prevention news for our weekly "Friday Finds” feature, we often come across editorials, personal stories, or wider-lens articles that don’t necessarily fit into a current events window. With “GVPanorama” we highlight some of these thought-provoking pieces.
In this recent article from The Boston Globe, Jens Ludwig — director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab and author of the new book, Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence — digs back into a book from long before our age of assault rifles and active shooter drills to put light on some possible solutions to our current gun epidemic.
The 1961 book he references — The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs — extrapolates on now-traditional but often overlooked urban renewal concepts that can lead to violence reduction, such as keeping streets clean, shops open, and giving citizens reasons to go out into and appreciate their neighborhoods.
It’s a concept Jacobs called “eyes on the street,” but which also sounds akin the currently growing movement of Community Violence Intervention (CVI) — a wide-ranging advocacy plan that encourages increased preventative social engagement measures and offers long-term support after gun tragedies.
“Jacobs argued that similarly poor neighborhoods had such different levels of violence in large part because they differed in the degree to which they had residents out and about, and willing to step in to interrupt trouble before it escalated.”
Check out the full article here.
