Community violence exposure (CVE) is associated with numerous psychosocial outcomes among youth. Although linear, cumulative effects models have typically been used to describe these relations, emerging evidence suggests the presence of curvilinear associations that may represent a pattern of emotional desensitization among youth exposed to…

Neighborhood research has increasingly emphasized the potential for contextual characteristics to moderate the effects of youths' experiences on their outcomes. Drawing on collective efficacy theory, we examine the variable consequences of youths' exposures to life-threatening violence across neighborhoods. We argue that strong community normative…

Digital storytelling draws on the power of narrative for personal and social transformation. This technique has many desirable attributes for sexuality education, including a participatory methodology, provision of a "safe space" to collaboratively address stigmatized topics, and an emphasis on the social and political contexts that…

Guided by Anderson's theory of the code of the street, this study explored social mechanisms linking individual-level disadvantage factors with the adoption of beliefs grounded in the code of the street and with drug trafficking and gun carrying--the co-occurring behavior shaping violence among young men in urban areas. Secondary data were…

In the wake of the videotaped beating death of a Chicago high school student, law-enforcement officials and educators called this week for renewed efforts to stem youth violence. But they also acknowledged that money and programs alone will not solve the problem. Cabinet members traveled to Chicago to offer money and to call for adults to play a…

Much research has argued for the existence of a marriage benefit to men, women, and children. Although the commonly suggested current response to a husband's violence has been for the couple to separate, traditionally women were often told to "stay for the children." This paper uses the Project on Human Development in Chicago…

As cities across the country and globe continue to generate new solutions to a wide variety of vexing problems, sharing information about what works and what doesn't has become more important than ever. Yet, outside of a few prominent policies, the vast majority of successful municipal experiments never reach a national audience or, for that…

Past research has shown that exposure to violence leads to aggressive behavior, but few community-based studies have examined theoretical models illustrating the mediating social cognitive processes that explain this relation with youth exposed to high rates of violence. This study examines the impact of community violence on behavior through…

In this article, the authors seek to contribute to the growing engagement with the school-prison nexus by considering two, perhaps less obvious, factors that implicate schools in the business of the prison industrial complex (PIC)--the examples of gentrification and sex offender registries. By unpacking some of the rhetoric that surrounds…

Crime and street violence often evoke racialized discourses about urban space. In this ethnographic research in Chicago, however, the disdain that many Mexican migrants articulated about street gangs principally concerned issues "internal" to the Mexican/Chicano community, notably a profound ambivalence about U.S.-born Mexicans and a…

A central goal of U.S. social welfare policy is to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential as productive adults. Yet it is increasingly clear that where children live plays a central role in determining their life chances. This paper provides an overview of The Urban Institute's Program on Neighborhoods and…

Immediately following the 1999 Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, the issue of school size jumped onto the front pages and into policy discussions. When violent episodes broke out in Littleton, Colorado, Port Huron, Michigan and in other districts, they have dominated the national media scene for months in a way that student deaths in…

Data from a survey of Illinois residents are used in this report to determine the extent and distribution of crime in the State. Specific areas addressed include: (1) the extent of two types of crime, violent crime and property crime, and which is the more predominant; (2) whether crime in Illinois is an urban or rural problem: (3) social…

Using data gathered from a multi-year field study, this article identifies specific life-course events shared by gang-affiliated women. Gangs emerge as a cultural adaptation or pro-social community response to poverty and racial isolation. Through the use of a social-network approach, data show that violence dramatically increases in the period…