PROJECT OVERVIEW

The goals of the project were to 1) identify research that has already addressed the connections among various macroeconomic factors (such as poverty, unemployment, and inflation) and youth violence, in the long run and the short run; 2) identify opportunities for doing additional research that can broaden and deepen our understanding in this area; and 3) identify opportunities for developing interventions especially preventive interventions that can contribute to reductions in youth violence, by affecting the macroeconomic factors themselves, as well as the more proximal factors that mediate the economic factors and youth violence.

Expert panel members—nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their fields included Alfred Blumstein, Rick Rosenfeld, Karen Heimer, Robert Crutchfield, Darnell Hawkins, Janet Lauritsen, and Eric Baumer. This project resulted in three deliverables to help CDC set future research and policy agendas: 1) a review of the literature that identified findings supported by the research and gaps, 2) a report on the state of monitoring systems and indicators and recommendations for improvements both in the short and long term, and 3) an edited volume produced by the expert panel.

The DSG team formulated new conceptualizations to guide such research and formulate preventive interventions based on that research. DSG staff worked closely with expert panelists and CDC staff to review the literature that examined the direct connections between macroeconomic factors and youth violence, and found that the literature, as hypothesized, was scant. Consequently, the team also reviewed literature that looked at the linkages between macroeconomic factors and mediating factors (schools, family, street markets, community resources) and between mediating factors and youth violence. This work resulted in a database of more than 1,100 studies and a book-length monograph that identified findings supported by the multidisciplinary studies under review and identified gaps in the literature that need to be addressed in order to understand and address the linkages.

DSG organized a one-day meeting devoted to the issue of extant monitoring systems and indicators that provide information about changes in youth violence, macroeconomic factors, and the mediating factors identified in the framework. The panelists identified the strengths and shortcomings of extant systems. The DSG team produced a report, based on the meeting that reported on the panelists’ findings and offered specific recommendations on how to strengthen systems. Members of the expert panel, the DSG team, and the CDC staff contributed articles to be published as an edited volume.

CONTACT US ABOUT THIS PROJECT

For More Information About the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Macroeconomic Violence Project 

Contact DSG president Marcia Cohen at mcohen@dsgonline.com or 301.951.0056.