"You Gotta be from the Streets to Help Around Here:" a Qualitative Inquiry of Peer Mentoring in Gun Violence Desistance

Background and Purpose: Urban gun-violence has reached epidemic proportions in many major US cities. Gun-violence interventions often rely on peer mentoring to reduce the risk for escalation of conflicts and continued urban gun-violence. Such programs commonly use credible messengers as peer mentors who use their own narratives and sustained identity shifts to motivate desistance among young people at risk. Credible messengers are individuals who have turned their lives around and peer mentoring is an intrinsic part of their new identities and lives. As peer mentoring is non-law enforcement based, mentors can easier access and gain trust in vulnerable and marginalized inner-city communities impacted by gun violence. However, research that explores the impact of peer mentoring on young people at risk who are trying to change their lives is lacking. Furthermore, it is unclear how credible messengers use their own “street” background and sustained desistance to promote desistance among young people at risk for gun violence. This study explored how credible messengers with sustained desistance used their own narratives and identity shifts to promote desistance among high-risk youth and young adults.

Methods: This study employed a narrative framework. We interviewed 30 young people at risk who expressed a desire to desist from crime, and 12 credible messengers with sustained desistance. Thematic analysis was used to examine (1) how those with sustained desistance used their own narratives to promote desistance among young people at risk, and (2) how young people at risk, with an expressed desire to desist, used sustained desisters as leverage to leave street life.

Results: A number of themes were identified, but most salient were caring, redemption, and empowerment. Peer mentors indicate that they draw on their past “street life” experiences and “redeemed” lives to provide genuine care and promote attitudinal shifts in young people at risk. Likewise, young people at risk described feeling “inspired” by “ex-gang bangers” and wanting to do well in the eyes of peer mentors as empowering and motivating components to leave “street life” and desist from retaliatory shootings.

Conclusions and Implications: The themes that emerged suggest peer mentors have a unique advantage over non-peer or non-credible messengers when committed to anti-violence work. These advantages likely could be leveraged to extend the types of support that peer mentors offer. Additionally, the findings have implications for bringing programs that use peer mentors to scale.