7. Project Summary
Violence disproportionately affects African American youth. In addition to death and injury, violence exposure
has significant psychological consequences, including traumatic stress symptoms and internalizing problems.
Self-directed violence has shown startling and disproportionate growth among African American youth, with
suicide rates nearly doubling from 2007 to 2018. Current prevention strategies have limited effectiveness,
perhaps due to their failure to address the causal role of structural racism in violence. The primary aim of this
proposed project is to examine the extent to which an intervention addressing structural racism in education
and law enforcement reduces interpersonal violence and suicide among middle school-aged youth, with a
focus on populations experiencing health disparities (African Americans; low-income communities). The
proposed project will examine community-level changes using a multiple baseline experimental design that
randomizes the start of the intervention in four communities, each comprising a police precinct and middle
school. The intervention will consist of (a) school-based intervention components including a culturally
responsive, community-inclusive adaptation of a whole-school climate intervention (School-wide Positive
Behavior Interventions and Supports), and culturally responsive practices training and coaching; (b) law
enforcement-based intervention components representing procedural justice interventions, including training in
disproportionate minority contact, and training and coaching on de-escalation with trauma-exposed youth; and
(c) an integrated community intervention that includes community-building between police officers, school
personnel, and youth through team-oriented contact. Outcomes will be measured using archival data from the
schools and police department as well as survey data from youth, school personnel, and police officers. Aim 1
is to evaluate the extent to which targeting structural and cultural racism reduces interpersonal violence among
youth, as measured by individual-level, school-level, and precinct-level data. Aim 2 is to evaluate the extent to
which targeting structural and cultural racism reduces suicidality among youth, as measured by completed
suicides and proximal precedents for suicide, including attempts and ideation. Aim 3 is to evaluate the extent
to which targeting structural and cultural racism reduces both overall rates and disproportionality of school-
based exclusionary discipline practices; increases culturally relevant pedagogy; and reduces both overall rates
and disproportionality of juvenile arrests and police use-of-force. Aim 4 is to evaluate specific intervention
components by determining their effects on hypothesized mechanisms of change at the individual, teacher,
school, and law enforcement levels. This intervention has the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality
among African American youth, promote overall quality of life, and reduce the societal costs associated with
both interpersonal violence and suicidality. Furthermore, effective strategies to address structural racism have
the potential to facilitate groundbreaking public health prevention of health disparities.