Gun violence is a public health crisis that needs more applied criminologists

Abstract

Research SummaryGun violence was declared a “public health crisis” after shootings increased in many U.S. cities during the course of the COVID‐19 pandemic. The public health approach to gun violence prevention offers many advantages such as an applied research model, the mobilization of a wider range of stakeholders, and a commitment to harm reduction. Too often, however, the public health community seems unaware of criminological research on gun violence and avoids including criminal justice interventions in their comprehensive plans.Policy ImplicationsCommunities need immediate relief from the persistent trauma of repeated shootings. Criminal justice interventions represent important responses to outbreaks of gun violence that should be included among recommended public health programs intended to address proximate and upstream causes of gun violence. Gun violence prevention policy and practice would be strengthened by more deliberate attempts to foster complementary public health and criminology research and development collaborations. More applied criminologists need to become engaged in gun violence research to meet this call.

Police shootings, violent crime, race and socio‐economic factors in municipalities in the United States of America

“…A fairly straightforward policy implication of our results is that in order to reduce police shootings, municipalities should focus on reducing violent crime (Braga, 2022). Though approaches, such as strategic, transparent and well‐trained policing, may aid with this, investing in communities is also a positive policy goal to reduce violent crime (Henderson & Brown, 2022).…”

Baseball and Science: What Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays Can Teach Us About Measuring Scholarly Impact

“…This is not an easy question to answer because opinions will vary about what constitutes a “good” publication or a “good” grant. Even so, scholars would do well to remember that publishing in the top-tier journals is a rare feat, even for those people who publish a lot generally (Fabianic, 2002; Kaiser & Pratt, 2016; Pratt, 2014); that most of the papers that are published—even in prestigious journals—are generally ignored and not cited very much at all (Roche et al, 2019); and that state/local grants and contracts—those that typically involve program/policy evaluation for criminal justice agencies—have a high potential to positively affect peoples’ lives (Braga, 2022). The point here is this: the impact that scholars can make through research and publication is most faithfully revealed and evaluated when emphasizing inclusivity with respect to journals, citations, and funding sources.…”