Research informs safety initiatives

In 2007, University of Chicago Ph.D. student Amadou Cisse was shot and killed on campus. Fourteen years later, UChicago graduate Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng, rising third-year student Max Lewis and Ph.D. student Yiran Fan similarly died from gun violence in 12 months, sparking a need for researchers to help resolve the issue of gun violence.

Programs at the University of Chicago are trying to better understand the source and the steps needed to take to prevent future incidents of gun violence.

The University of Chicago Crime Lab was launched in 2008 and partners with the public sector to use research to test and evaluate programs that enhance public safety. They are involved in assessing numerous programs like the READI Chicago, a program that works to connect men with the highest risk of experiencing gun violence with the resources they need. 

“I think one challenge is that there is this sort of perception, that all sorts of crime are up everywhere,” said Roseanna Ander, executive director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. “It’s not all types of crime. It’s gun violence that has increased very, very sharply.”

According to Ms. Ander, the burden of the gun violence crisis is disproportionately concentrated in certain Chicago neighborhoods, particularly among specific groups within those neighborhoods.

“I think, you know, people talk all the time about equity. If we’re going to actually be serious as a city about equity, then we need to understand where the burden is greatest, and where the needs are the greatest and devote the needed resources equitably,” Ms. Ander said. “And so I think it would be important for the university, but you know, all parts of the city government and philanthropy and others that have resources to take seriously this notion of equity.”

According to Ms. Ander, the University of Chicago should think about employment opportunities for residents of Chicago, prioritize residents to create job opportunities and continue to ensure that high-quality research can be generated. In a broader scope, Ms. Ander believes the criminal justice system needs to be more effective when it comes to gun violence and reform. 

“We need to focus on not having the criminal justice system involved in things that actually aren’t really public safety issues,” Ms. Ander said. “So, you know, things like low-level arrests for substance use is an example of things that the criminal justice system gets involved in, that probably isn’t really providing much public safety benefit, and probably creating real harm.”

She expressed a need for more infrastructure to provide opportunities for individuals who were previously incarcerated or involved in violence to feel included in society.

“When you look at who’s being victimized by gun violence, and who are the individuals who end up getting arrested for gun violence, the average age is something like 27,” Ms. Ander said.  “We do not have anywhere near the infrastructure that is designed to serve that population.”

Myles Francis, project manager of the Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention, is working directly on these issues and hopes to see more funding opportunities for programs that approach violence from a community and trauma-informed perspective.

“We need to identify the people that are trying to do the work, trying to do street outreach and trying to tackle food insecurity,” Mr. Francis said. “We also need to provide the funding necessary to connect those people and to give them the tools needed to implement their violence interventions at a high level and to evaluate them rigorously.”

Mr. Francis said the University of Chicago needs to do a better job of listening to the opinions and suggestions of the community and incorporating them when taking action.

“The university has so many talented people, and so many resources, and so much access and so much money,” Mr. Francis said, “and it owes a lot of that to the communities that surround it.” 

According to Mr. Francis, Hyde Park and the areas that surround the university present a unique challenge to public safety due to the “bubble mentality” it possesses.

“Hyde Park is a space where it seems like there isn’t a full commitment, not from the community so much as the large power-wielding institutions, to address violence in a way that reflects how close they are to it,” Mr. Francis said. “There is a community of people that would very much like to operate as if Hyde Park is downtown and doesn’t have to engage with or worry about the violence that neighboring communities have to deal with.”