NeAngela Dixon, Criminal Justice Program Officer, and Ursula Wheeler, former Project Management and Research Associate, write about MacArthur-supported research, direct services, and a convening that explored opportunities at the intersection of gun violence and intimate partner violence prevention.
While gun possession and intimate partner abuse overlap in complex ways, the practitioners who work on these issues do not always engage together. MacArthur has funded work on gun violence and intimate partner violence separately through two different programs, Chicago Commitment and Criminal Justice.
Over the last couple years, MacArthur has engaged in a short-term exploration focused on gathering experts at the intersection of gun violence and intimate partner violence to engage deeply on the topic by collecting research, sharing practical lessons, and developing resources for the field.
Why Gun Violence and Intimate Partner Violence?
We chose to focus on this topic for a few reasons. First, it relates closely to our Criminal Justice Program’s initiative, the Safety and Justice Challenge (SJC), which supports communities working to make their local criminal justice systems more fair, efficient, and effective, and includes specific efforts focused on the experience of women and survivors impacted by the system. This topic also relates to our Chicago Commitment Program, which has worked to reduce gun violence in our hometown.
We heard clearly that although gun violence and intimate partner violence often are seen as separate issues, they are overlapping and interdependent.
Additionally, this intersection emerged as a burgeoning topic of interest during our conversations with peer funders. We heard clearly that although gun violence and intimate partner violence often are seen as separate issues, they are overlapping and interdependent. It was clear that we had an opportunity to support further study of this underfunded area.
Research and Grantmaking
To support work on this topic, we commissioned two research projects:
- A Study on Gun Violence and Intimate Partner Violence provides a landscape scan of trends, gaps, and opportunities, with a particular focus on the experiences of Black women which are often overlooked in these sectors. The report is authored by Esprene Liddell-Quintyn, PhD, MA; Noelle M. St. Vil, PhD, MSW, LMSW; Devon Ziminski, MS; and Jennifer Elliott, MSW.
- Domestic Violence-Related Firearms Restrictions is a review of state-level domestic violence laws that include firearm relinquishment requirements by April M. Zeoli, Stephen N. Oliphant, Stephen Blanton, and Roman Kalaczinski with the University of Michigan’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention.
We also made grants to three organizations providing direct services, technical assistance and training, and additional programming related to firearms and intimate partner violence:
- Battered Women’s Justice Project promotes change within the civil and criminal legal systems to enhance safety, security, and justice for survivors of gender-based violence, their families, and communities.
- Center for Justice Innovation’s RISE Project is a comprehensive New York City-wide initiative that promotes safety by transforming community responses to the intersection of intimate partner violence and gun violence.
- Ujima, the National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community serves victims of domestic violence while uplifting Black women in particular and seeks to build the capacity and infrastructure of culturally specific organizations within the government, at the community level, and among private funders.
We brought together 30 funders, practitioners, and scholars at a convening earlier this year to talk about the research findings and discuss collaborative solutions to the ways that violence in the community can affect, and be affected by, intimate partner violence.
Participants discussed the ways that racism, interpretations of masculinity, cultural shifts, job loss, and other issues impact responses to intimate partner violence and homicide. We also discussed the need for different policies, programs, and community interventions that are more culturally specific and involve a more intersectional approach to better address the needs of survivors.
Facilitating the Sharing of Experts' Knowledge
We were gratified to see a vibrant conversation about where prevention strategies for gun violence and intimate partner violence might go from here.
Our aim was to make space for individuals with years of research, on-the-ground experience, and deep knowledge of gun violence and intimate partner violence prevention to come together, knowing they would benefit from the opportunity to meet one another and share their perspectives and ideas.
We were gratified to see a vibrant conversation about where prevention strategies for gun violence and intimate partner violence might go from here.
Enabling this kind of community building and knowledge sharing is an effective way funders can support individuals and organizations working in sectors we care about. We have learned time and again how powerful it can be to simply provide the setting and the resources for experts to come together and let them do what they do best: solve hard problems.
This effort was led by our New Work initiative which seeks to foster new ways of working and increase cross-program collaboration while exploring ideas that might result in learning or new areas of work.
