The report’s several authors are researchers from Pitt’s Gunshot Recurring Injury Prevention Service research project; Richard Garland, MSM, Steven M. Alpert, PhD, and Brianna McDonough.
In addition to Pitt researchers, the review committee boasts 19 members from a variety of medical, educational, community, law enforcement, and human service agencies. Among them are the Allegheny County Jail, The Allegheny Intermediate Unit, UPMC trauma centers, the Pittsburgh Project and the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Some of its key findings in the 2013 report are that while Black-on-Black street violence in Pittsburgh is commonly called “gang” violence, only 2 of the 47 homicide victims in the city belonged to a defined, named, territorial group.
Another 10 victims were identified as possibly related to peer conflict and another 16 were definitively identified as involving peer conflict—where competition over money or goods escalates to gun violence due to the acceptability of using guns to settle disputes and the actual prevalence of gun possession.
“It’s one more tool in the box we’re using to try to stop the violence,” said Garland. “We look at different trends. Look for patterns, and we’ve found some.”
The report also points out that though African-Americans constitute only 26 percent of the city population, they account for 80 percent of its homicide victims. These deaths are also highly localized with 70 percent occurring in just 15 of the city’s 92 neighborhoods.
The social determining risk factor for these victims include “chronic, multigenerational involvement in illegal activity and violence; the presence of drugs, alcohol and guns, and the increased use of social media such as Facebook and Instagram.
“But the biggest thing coming out of this is data showing how closing the housing communities and schools has affected violence in some of these community,” he said. “When St. Clair Village closed, they sent those women to the North Side, and where the women go, the guys go.”
Garland said the data also shows that people recently released from incarceration are becoming victims quickly.
“Some of these guys don’t last a year,” said Garland. “One guy didn’t even last two weeks. That’s why I’m working on trying to set up better trades and jobs skills programs at the federal penitentiary and state prison level. If they can get a job, they can change.”
The report also recommends:
•Increasing community participation and investment in prevention efforts;
•Enhancing the homicide review process by increasing members and enhancing data collection, and expanding the effort to Allegheny County in response to any shifting trends; and
•Identifying and involving at-risk individuals, their friends and family in a strategic manner by engaging them in non-traditional settings such as community-based organizations, and primary care clinics.
(Send comments to cmorrow@newpittsburghcourier.com.)
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