Implementing Youth Violence Reduction Strategies. Findings from a Synthesis of the Literature on Gun, Group, and Gang Violence

By Andreea Matei ; Leigh Courtney; Krista White; Lily Robin; Paige S. Thompson; Rod Martinez; & Janine Zweig

In 2018, the Urban Institute received funding from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to develop a guide for using research-based practice to reduce youth gun and gang/group violence. The guide aims to translate research into actionable guidance on policy and practice. It is intended to inform local government, law enforcement, and community-violence-intervention stakeholders as they implement new strategies and refine existing ones to reduce youth gang/group and gun violence in their communities. The primary audience for the guide—and for this report—is the leadership of local government bodies (e.g., mayors, county executives, county commissioners, youth violence reduction task forces) because their decisions greatly influence whether violence reduction practices are successfully implemented and sustained. We frame the findings in this report with this audience in mind, although we hope and expect they will be of broader use and interest to any entity involved in designing and implementing violence reduction efforts—including community-based organizations serving youths and young adults—as well as community stakeholders, policymakers, professionals, and researchers working on youth gang and gun violence. We used a narrow scope for this project, focusing on strategies and approaches explicitly intended to reduce gun-related violence committed by young people between the ages of 10 and 25 who may also be associated with gangs/groups (box 1), including interventions that solely or primarily serve youth. 1 We did not focus on all strategies designed to reduce youth gun violence, nor on gang prevention and intervention efforts not expressly intended to reduce gun violence and homicide. Based on this framing, we focus on interventions that are immediate responses to an acute problem, rather than those that address risk factors associated with violence broadly. For this project, the Urban research team conducted the following two core tasks: ■ A review of literature on violence reduction strategies. Urban identified and synthesized research on the implementation and impact of relevant violence prevention, reduction, and control strategies. ■ A scan of practices designed to reduce violence. With input from a group of subject-matter experts advising the project, the NIJ, and the OJJDP, Urban identified 14 violence reduction interventions including focused deterrence, public health efforts, and the Spergel Model of Gang Intervention and Suppression/OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model. Urban worked with leadership from each intervention to collect program materials, observe activities, and interview intervention leadership and staff, community partners, law enforcement and justice system personnel, and program participants. These activities resulted in the practice guide, a scan of practices, and this research synthesis, in which we lay the groundwork for the practice guide by reviewing and synthesizing the state of research about youth gun and gang/group violence.

Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2022. 51p.