Treating others as it they don’t have a story
By treating another human being as if they don’t have a story and they’re not worthy of respect, you’re stripping them of their humanity, and that’s when violence happens. It’s easy to hate that which we don’t know.
Colby Swettberg, Ed.M, LCSW
Many forms of violence
There are many levels of violence that occur, depending on how you define violence. The first piece might be physical and emotional, but then once the system is involved, young people tend to experience lots of other forms of violence, as well. The very act of being removed from the family can be construed as violence. Kids are split up and then they bounce from home to home. The system that’s set up to protect them and support them in fact further traumatizes them. Part of it is in that constant feeling and reality of transition: a new home, a new school, a new community, new caregivers, new foods, and new cultures all the time. Not feeling safe, not feeling like you can trust your surroundings, not feeling like you have a sense of connection or belonging and that at any moment the rug could be ripped out from under you, that is a form of violence.
Colby Swettberg, Ed.M, LCSW
Oversimplification of why
There’s this oversimplification of why people find themselves in urban areas where people are struggling economically and with all kinds of other societal problems that are not of their making. Problems like racism, with all the challenges that have to do with being undereducated, and with not having equal access to the resources. There’s an oversimplification of why they’re in that situation and why it’s so difficult to come out of it. There’s a belief that kids who grow up in that situation can somehow overcome it by sheer force of will, when they don’t have other options or other sources of emotional or psychological nutrients coming in, as if exposure to all these things does not diminish their capacity.
Allison Scobie-Carroll, LICSW, MBA, Director of Social Work
Need to be jobs available so that people don’t feel disempowered
There are multiple reasons why you’ll see violence in communities. One factor has to do with income. It’s not that people need to make a bunch of money, but there need to be jobs available so that people don’t feel disempowered. Having job options and affordable education in communities can be really challenging, but without them people can feel hopeless and turn to other means to make that money.
Shanna Masdea, Former Student Services Coordinator, Edward Brooke Charter School
Economic opportunities
Gun violence happens mostly in neighborhoods where there aren’t a lot of economic opportunities for folks. There are neighborhoods that over time have really been neglected, not at the family level, but more at the city level. Where you find kids able to access guns is not arbitrary. There are huge social justice issues that play into this.
Erin Collins, LICSW
Defending yourself
You see a lot of fights break out because “so and so was talking about me.” This idea that you have to defend your reputation or your turf seems to be pretty prevalent. If you come from a place where you have to defend yourself to stay safe in your neighborhood, then you have, in a sense, no choice but to resort to violence.
Michelle Boyle , Teacher
People are segregated
One of the reasons why we don’t have peace is because people are so segregated, and because they don’t know about each other’s cultures and practices. Things that people don’t know they tend to be afraid of.
Michelle Boyle, Teacher
Feeing safe and powerful
People act violently out of fear and ignorance, because we’re scared, because we don’t understand. In that sense, violence is an attempt to get something reasonable, to get to feel safe and powerful, in ways that are inappropriate or hurtful.
Steven Brion-Meisels, Former Director of Peace First
The broken windows theory
There’s the broken windows theory of crime. Crime starts out as a social disorganization. Social issues lead to crime, like having your neighborhood with graffiti and quality of life issues like loud music and trash. You clean that up, and people will start to take pride in their neighborhood and then crime will decrease. But how do you get started in that? You need money and you need people on board. I do see plenty of people involved in community groups. They get involved in it, they want to clean up their neighborhood, and they want their neighborhood to be safe. But you need money for after school programs, you need money to bring clean up the entire neighborhood, and getting everybody together to clean.
Taylor Small, Police Officer