Nowhere to Turn to be Safe: Deepening the Understanding of Community Violence Based on Disadvantaged Youths' Perspectives

Background

Community violence exposure generally is defined in terms of witnessing or being involved as perpetrator or victim of physical aggression, and also (increasingly public) the problem of police brutality. Adding youths’ perspectives from a participatory action context leads to enriched understandings of community violence.

Methods

Over the past 9 years of providing participatory action-based counseling and social services for 450 seriously at-risk African-American youth in Bronzeville and Woodlawn, patterns of violence exposure were analyzed from case histories. Data were gathered naturalistically in the form of field and case process notes, letters to instructors and policy-makers, and youth-led peer interviews. A subsample of 45 who described their violence exposure in-depth during the service period was analyzed qualitatively using a thematic analysis.

Results

In addition to physical community violence and police brutality, youth described betrayals of trust by societal child protection networks, in three major forms:

1) multiply-reported serious child physical and sexual abuse in which child welfare professionals investigated but took no protective or service action. Youth were endangered by asking for help, as caregivers became enraged and retaliatory,

2) unprotected sexual victimization of (primarily) girls by adult (and sometimes youth) community males, resulting in feelings of sexualized terror, and for some unwanted early pregnancy, and

3) shootings and fights in schools, bus-stops, and other supposedly safe locations.

Repeatedly, youth sought recourse and protection from child welfare, police, school and other authorities, but they were not protected. For many, seeking help endangered them. Police were seen as dangerous adversaries, rather than guarantors of their safety. Their communities lacked resources for adolescents fleeing family violence. Youth described intact ideals that children should be protected, via their desires to mentor community children, and they realized societal betrayals of youths’ rights to protection were unjust. 

Implications

Community violence exposure conceptualizations need to include societal failures in child protection, which deepened youths’ trauma-induced alienation and were psychologically, socially, and morally debilitating. Further research that is participatory and consumer-oriented can improve optimal service design for at-risk youth.

Child welfare, community policing, school-based and other services such as transportation need to improve protection of youth. Free, trauma-informed, accessible mental health services for youth are needed, with an emphasis on helping youth reveal violence exposure and sustain safety. Shelters for homeless and runaway youth and services that provide “safe havens” are critical elements of community violence prevention efforts. Educational and social services need to take societal failures into account because in order to become good citizens, youth need examples of good faith efforts to carry out the social contract to protect young people. Further research is needed about the prevalence of reported but unprotected child abuse and neglect, disadvantaged young persons’ community exposure to sexual aggression, and violence occurring in locations youth rightfully assume will be protective. From a policy standpoint, improved protections of children from violence in families, schools, and other contexts in which adults are formally charged with protecting youth are essential.