Investigating the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Violence Interruption

Depaul University, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Although crime has decreased across most major US cities, violent crime is still a prominent issue in many urban environments. Neighborhoods that are plagued by such excessive violence endure negative effects on social and economic development. Though there are several approaches to addressing gun violence, one successful public health approach to reducing violence focuses on violence interruption, a neighborhood-level model whereby trained intervention workers identify potential violent events and provide immediate alternatives to disrupt violent incidents in their communities. This project investigates the potential of a mobile phone application to help intervention workers predict and interrupt violence during crimes and violent incidents. Violence interruption workers also provide long-term outreach in an attempt to permanently change violent behavior, including providing access to resources such as mental health services, social services, educational opportunities, and work training. This award will also support the design and development of a mobile application that uses predictive analytic techniques to provide violence interruption workers with the most effective intervention strategies based on data from over a decade of prior interventions. Working with a leading violence interruption organization, this project examines how a mobile application can improve violence interruption outcomes by providing recommendations for the most effective strategies for resolving violent conflicts. The PI and her students will evaluate the mobile application in a 3-month deployment in Chicago during the summer, typically the most violent period of the year. In addition to supporting the reduction of violence, results from this project will lead to a deeper understanding of how to design technology to scale effective violence interruption techniques informed by public health principles. Furthermore, using computational analysis techniques to provide the most effective interruption techniques to violence interruption workers will not only advance our knowledge of the role of technology in violence interruption, but also extend prior literature pertaining to the social and behavioral impact of technology use in crime prevention and violence for those most affected by violent crime. This work will support improvements in the science of broadening participation, in that the focus will be on residents in low income, high crime neighborhoods and local, nonprofit organizations attempting to reduce and mitigate violence in their communities.