Reducing Violence News Archive

On Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast, Emily Bazelon discusses our recent report on why young people in Brooklyn, New York, carry guns. In the show’s “cocktail chatter” segment, Bazelon touches on the four types of gun-carriers identified in the study, the pervasive sense of fear that drives some young people towards guns, and other insights from the report.
 

Researchers Basaime Spate, Elise White, and Javonte Alexander join News12 Brooklyn to discuss our groundbreaking report on why some young New Yorkers are carrying guns. Led by researchers with first-hand experience in the street networks of young gun-carriers, the study identified fear as the overwhelming factor behind the decision to carry. As Basaime Spate puts it, this was the first study of its kind to “have a shooter and a gang member talking about why they are part of a gang, why they are picking up a gun.”
 

As gun violence surges among young people in Baltimore, advocates and policymakers are looking for ways to address the underlying reasons that some young people turn to guns. The Baltimore Sun explores new, grassroots approaches to combating youth gun violence in the city and draws insight from our study of why 100 young people in Brooklyn, New York choose to carry.

The first in a series of studies into the roots of gun-carrying in four major cities, our recent report identifies fear as the main reason young people in Brooklyn, New York say they carry a gun. Only by specifically addressing this population’s needs—and building trust with respected community members—can gun violence prevention programs hope to achieve their goals.

Amid a spike in violence among youth, a team of researchers from the Center spoke to 100 young people living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, about why they carry guns. Their answers singled out fear—for their own lives and the lives of their loved ones—as the main factor driving their gun-carrying. The New York Daily News quotes one 19-year-old boy who spoke with our researchers in the landmark study: “My biggest fear is somebody coming for me and they can’t get to me, they try to get to my family.”

“It’s not about being cool or being tough. It’s just more about being safe.” In-depth conversations we had with 103 young gun-carriers in Brooklyn, New York (ages 15 to 24), reveal that they primarily carry guns out of fear. In its daily bulletin, The Trace discusses our new study—entitled “Two Battlefields”: Opps, Cops, and NYC Youth Gun Culture—and explores how its findings tie into other recent research on guns in youth culture.

Elise White, Basaime Spate, and Javonte Alexander—researchers with the Center—join WNYC to discuss their recent study on why young New Yorkers are carrying guns. It’s fear, above all, that drives these young people towards gun-carrying, and hearing what they have to say is a crucial step towards more effective strategies to stop gun violence. “When we’re talking about gangs and guns, we really got to bring in the gangs, bring in the Big Homies, and give them a platform or a table to speak at,” Basaime Spate said.

Gun violence spiked during the pandemic in 2020, making headlines, but little is known about why young people carry guns in the first place. In a new study exclusively previewed by Gothamist, our researchers worked to change that, asking 100 young people from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, why they carry. Hear from the research team about how they gained these young people’s trust, the fear that drives youth towards guns, and what policymakers can learn by listening to young gun-carriers.

In our new study, 100 young New Yorkers open up about why they carry guns. Their answers point to widespread fear, and a need for new paths to safety.

In a groundbreaking study on gun possession among youth in New York City, the Center for Court Innovation found that young people's decisions to carry a firearm overwhelmingly stemmed from concerns for their physical safety. The report surveyed up to 330 young people, ages 16 to 24, who expressed fears of being harmed both by violent crime and by interactions with law enforcement. The researchers concluded that strategies to reduce gun violence at the community level must be informed by the perspectives of affected young people themselves.