Honest Listening: Guns and Structural Violence
In November 2020, Professor Joseph Richardson shared a lecture titled “Life After the Gunshot: A Digital Storytelling Project.” This project chronicles the lives of 10 black men who were victims of gun violence and treated at UMDs Prince George’s hospital center, where they participated in the Capital Region Violence Intervention Project.
Detailed interviews with these men reveal their humanity and nuanced lives. There is significant trauma associated with being involved with firearm violence as well as the criminal justice system. In the interviews, the men described PTSD in their own language rather than clinical descriptions. They highlighted experiences of hypervigilance, sensitivity to loud sounds, anxiety, substance abuse, mental confusion, and a general sense of wrongness. They also expressed their desire for wellness for themselves and so they could be present for the important people in their lives.
Dr. Richardson centers much of his lecture on structural violence. Structural violence includes perceptions beyond fists, knives, or guns and is a more depersonalized form of violence. Structural violence manifests as unequal power dynamics and can sometimes be invisible. It is also ongoing and pervasive. For example, the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionally killed Black Americans. This is structural violence resulting from inequities and racism in the healthcare industry, housing industry, and many other factors. Social inequalities lead to the realities of structural violence and can be seen in food deserts, the Flint water crisis, and mass incarceration. These forms of violence are often normalized or accepted as part of life when in reality, they are socially constructed.
Dr. Richardson also looks specifically at how structural violence impacts the patients of trauma centers. Doctors need to be educated in trauma-informed care, as well as the ways that the healthcare and criminal justice systems intersect. Dr. Richardson found that past incarceration is the highest statistical risk factor for repeat visits to a trauma center. People with past incarcerations also have more barriers to recovering from violent and traumatic experiences. There are many collateral consequences to a felony conviction, including disenfranchisement, unemployment, housing discrimination, and more. Maryland, in particular, needs to be aware of this as we have the highest incarceration rate in the country for Black men between the ages of 18-25.
Dr. Richardson describes how clinicians can address the public health crisis of gun violence through hospital-based violence prevention programs. Breaking the cycle is critical. These intervention programs should include trauma-informed care, mental health and substance abuse counseling, employment and educational assistance, housing assistance so victims aren’t sent home to the same neighborhood where they were just shot, legal aid, and peer support. We need to change the structure and conditions that allow for firearm violence rather than blaming black men for being shot.
About the Author
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She will graduate from the University of Maryland with her MLIS in spring 2023.