Research
Violence is preventable. The Violence Prevention Research Program’s mission is to develop and disseminate the research evidence on which informed violence prevention policy and practice are based. To do so, our robust research program examines violence –in all its forms– through the lenses of causes, consequences, and prevention:
- Causes of violence are behaviors or conditions that increase risk for violence.
- Consequences of violence may be immediately known or manifest in later years.
- Prevention of violence is the modification of violent behavior and promotion of safer communities through programs and policies.
For decades, VPRP conducted leading research on firearm violence and policy – often when few else did. As the field and funding for it has grown, so have we. To advance our research on violence and its prevention, we built a team with wide-ranging expertise, including medicine, epidemiology, statistics and biostatistics, sociology, criminology, law, economics, and policy analysis.
These fields converge with the public health approach to violence, a methodology and mindset VPRP director Garen Wintemute helped to develop in the 1980s. We still apply this approach to everything we do, looking at violence and its prevention as a population health issue. This means that in addition to studying the role of firearms, our team also researches the social structures that perpetuate and create environments for violence.
This is especially important because the burden of violence is not equally distributed across the population. Disparities driven by social and structural determinants of health – like racism and neighborhood disadvantage – are long-standing and increasing, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. But our research demonstrates that strategic investment in historically marginalized communities, evidence-based policy, and community-driven violence prevention initiatives can lead to a safer, healthier, and more equitable future.
It may seem daunting, but incremental change adds up: we’ve done it in California. By layering policies that work in synergy to reduce risk, California’s gun violence rates steadily receded over at least the last two decades – a sharp contrast to the rest of the nation, which saw gun violence increasing over the same years. While the pandemic coincided with spikes in violence nationwide, including in California, the state today has one of the lowest firearm mortality rates in the country.
In looking at the next opportunities to prevent violence, there are many ways where VPRP is developing knowledge and driving change. We are defining the scope of firearm violence and proximity of risk in people’s daily lives. We are identifying firearm purchasing patterns of mass shooters and people at risk of suicide, which may be used to develop predictive tools to identify and prevent tragedies from occurring, and studying the policy tools already being used today. We’re teaching clinicians how to engage gun-owning patients respectfully and collaboratively to reduce their risk of harm. Through our newest area of scholarship, we are developing a greater understanding of contemporary political violence risks.
VPRP believes in the value of scientific research in addressing major health and social problems. Our team conducts research that informs policy and programs that prevent violence, enhance safety, and heal communities. Our work empowers communities to speak up to help realize a safer future. Together, we can change the trajectory of one of America's most significant public health problems.
This overview is adapted from a June 2023 “Spotlight on VPRP” commemorating National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Project Highlights
There is an urgent need to identify modifiable structural determinants of youth violence, as these root causes give rise to the material, social, and economic conditions that can promote or prevent violent acts. The objective of this project is to examine local government spending on public goods and services (such as education, public welfare, and housing and community development) as a potential structural determinant of interpersonal youth violence. This research will provide actionable, policy-relevant findings to cities interested in achieving long-lasting reductions in violence through a strategic, health-oriented approach to spending.
PI: Veronica Pear
Primary Mentor: Garen Wintemute
Mentors: Tiffani Johnson, Kerry Keyes (Columbia University), Anthony Braga (University of Pennsylvania)
Co-I: Shani Buggs
Funders: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (K01CE003402)
The goal of this project is to speak to people who are from vulnerable communities that are highly impacted by firearm violence to learn 1) whether they support and would use extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs) to have firearms removed from high-risk situations and 2) what alternatives to ERPOs they would prefer, if any. Increased understanding of the concerns of people who could potentially benefit from the law but who may be reluctant to use it can inform ERPO policy design and implementation practices.
PI: Veronica Pear
Co-Is: Shani Buggs and Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz
Analyst: Alex Dent
Funders: Fund for a Safer Future
This project documents the evolution of state laws governing firearm carrying in high-risk public settings. Specifically, we examine firearm regulations in two contexts: bars and restaurants serving alcohol, where impaired judgment and increased aggression are more likely, and protests and demonstrations, where large crowds gather, and firearms could escalate conflicts into lethal violence. We estimate the impacts of permitting or restricting firearms in these locations on rates of gun violence.
Project Team: Hannah Laqueur, Rose Kagawa
Poverty and income inequality have wide-ranging and disproportionate effects on children and families, including environmental, social-emotional, and behavioral health sequela that elevate risk for community violence. At the same time, limited evidence suggests that strategies addressing structural and social determinants of health by enhancing economic opportunity and helping families avoid financial stress can prevent violence and promote well-being and intersectional racial equity. This project evaluates whether and how two of the largest anti-poverty public policies in the United States—the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC)—affect the determinants, consequences, and prevention of community violence and racial/ethnic inequities in community violence among low-income families.
Co-PIs: Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, Shani Buggs, Angela Bruns (Gonzaga University), Xiaoya Zhang (University of Florida)
This project uses implementation science and participatory research principles to collaboratively develop an ecologically informed evaluation framework for community-based violence intervention (CVI), emphasizing direct engagement of community careholder priorities and perspectives. Findings can be applied broadly to future community-research partnerships designed to empower community careholders and residents to equitably participate and co-produce evidence of the implementation and effectiveness of community-centered strategies designed to reduce violence and build community health and safety.
Co-PIs: Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, Shani Buggs, Kathryn Bocanegra (University of Illinois Chicago)
Funders: National Institute of Justice
This project involves analyzing crime gun recovery and theft records for the state of California since 2010, linked to in-state firearm sales and transfers of ownership. The aim is to provide a comprehensive and detailed study of the nature, structure and dynamics of California’s crime gun markets and the sources of firearms used in crime.
Principle Investigator: Hannah Laqueur
We are conducting a randomized assessment of California’s initiative to prevent violence by recovering firearms from individuals who purchased them legally but have since become prohibited from possessing them, such as following a conviction for a violent crime. We are assessing effects at the individual and community levels.
Project Team: Garen Wintemute, Daniel Tancredi (UC Davis) Veronica Pear, Yueju Li (UC Davis), Christoher McCort, Glenn Pierce (Northeastern University), Anthony Braga (University of Pennsylvania), Mona Wright, Hannah Laqueur, Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, David Studdert (Stanford University), Laurel Beckett (UC Davis)
Research Database
Interested in seeing more of our violence prevention research? Check out our Research Database at the Centers for Violence Prevention website.
Need more info?
Having difficulty finding a publication, statistic, or video? Email us and include "Information Request" in the subject line. We try to respond by the end of the next business day, but if your need is more urgent, be sure to let us know.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
The UC Davis Centers for Violence Prevention monthly newsletter delivers the latest from our team – including research, news, events, and media highlights from the Violence Prevention Research Program and the California Firearm Violence Research Center – right to your inbox. Sign up and stay connected!
