June 13, 2020

Science, Crisis, and Social Change

In the 1980s, the Violence Prevention Research Program helped develop what some call the public health approach to violence—our first scientific report on racial disparities in firearm violence appeared in 1987—and we apply that approach in nearly everything we do.

 
Part of the scientific process is a continuing examination of one’s own assumptions and efforts. As one example, our work has broadened over time to include violence of all types, though we still concentrate on firearm violence, and to include the social, economic, and cultural factors that are associated with violence.

 
Recent events have caused us to give increased urgency and prominence to that examination. We are asking these questions and others: Does our work go deeply enough into the causes of violence? What biases to we bring to that work? What biases are built into the data we use? Given our knowledge and skills, how can we be most helpful in creating social change?

 
This is an extraordinary time, in which shared grief and a relentless determination to achieve justice at long last might put our nation on a better course. VPRP is committed to that effort.
 

Thank you.

Garen Wintemute, MD, MPH
Baker–Teret Chair in Violence Prevention
Director, Violence Prevention Research Program
Professor of Emergency Medicine