By Joshua Jones

Often, discussions concerning the violence in Black communities have been viewed as an aggregation of individual acts, one shooting, one arrest, one tragedy at a time; however, there is a much greater connective picture if one examines the structural issues surrounding current reactions and responses to this violence. The violence is not random; there are patterns and predictive models in its occurrence. If we are honest with ourselves, this form of violence can be prevented.

However, our typical reaction to the violence continues to revolve around individual and family failure, as opposed to looking beyond the individuals and families to the structural systems that have been used to create the communities within which there is an established level of violence (not because of the individuals or families, but rather because of the conditions that have been created due to social and systemic idiosyncrasies). This type of framing of the problem is not only intellectually dishonest but also damages the very people whom the policies are designed to serve.

Social disorganization theory has been used as a framework to help understand the social construct of violence. This theory was first developed by Shaw and McKay (1942) and later updated and expanded by Sampson and Groves (1989). The authors of this theory assert that due to concentrated poverty, unstable housing, and a lack of investment in community institutions, communities lack the ability to implement collective efficacy, which means to work together to solve problems, to enforce social norms, and to maintain the safety of the area.

Sampson and Wilson (1995) argued that communities where resources (e.g., quality educational systems, stable employment opportunities, adequate housing) are limited and structurally created cannot support residents in obtaining these resources, resulting in communities marked by crime.

The lack of these resources in Black communities is not just an unfortunate circumstance or coincidence, but rather is based on the long-established and researched policies of redlining, discriminatory housing practices, and years of unequal playing fields as a result of disinvestment by governments from Black communities, as outlined in The Color of Law. Therefore, when families are placed into an environment void of the foundational resources needed to support family growth and to create safety, violence becomes a result of structural failure, not a result of the culture of that particular family.

There are research-based studies available regarding the impact of family structure on parental behavior in communities where continual stress is prevalent, i.e., chronic stress. The Family Stress Model, developed by McLoyd (1990) and later expanded on by Conger et al., clearly establishes that the onset of poverty leads to increased levels of parental psychological distress. This increased level of parental psychological distress leads to disruption in the parent/child relationship and thereby increases the likelihood of negative child outcomes as a result. In general terms, Black families have multiple layers of stress on top of their poverty stress.

Threlfall, Seay, and Kohl (2013) found that Black families residing in areas of concentrated poverty suffer from a lack of access to institutional resources, limited neighborhood community supports, and geographic isolation from employment, and that these issues build on top of each other in very unique ways that traditional single-variable analyses fail to capture. The stress that parents experience in these environments is not a character defect within the parents; instead, it is a rational reaction to circumstances that do not make sense.

Poverty and racism are two of the most strenuous issues that people face. Despite the extreme difficulty of raising children in a low-income neighborhood, many parents do so with great skill and ability. Condon et al. (2021) found that the experience of being discriminated against racially increases stress in parenting and negatively affects the socioemotional outcomes in their children, as detailed in this study on racial discrimination, mental health, and parenting.

According to Stevenson et al. (2001), racial socialization is defined as the process of how Black parents teach their children how to survive this world with dignity. The cognitive and emotional work that Black families do daily to protect their children from harm is tremendous. These families are not failures; they are absorbing an inordinate amount of societal dysfunction without adequate support from the institutions that could be providing assistance.

The resiliency of Black families in this type of environment has been documented, but it is essential that their resilience be correctly identified. According to Brody et al. (2023), if one defines resiliency as an individual achievement, it deflects attention away from the structural causes of the necessity of resiliency and puts the burden of systemic problems back on those who are affected by them, as discussed in this critical examination of resilience in African American families.

Studies have shown that Black families have many resources that support their resilience, kinship and community connections, spirituality and religious resources, racial pride, and positive coping strategies. However, these resources are not limitless. When economic resources have been depleted, when faith-based organizations lack good programs, and when other relatives have their own survival issues to deal with, the structure of supports for Black families will, by nature of their structure, begin to deteriorate. This deterioration will not be due to a lack of will, but due to the weight of the challenges being placed upon them.

The impact of chronic stress on children’s developing brains extends beyond the adult brain; it also affects their neurobiology and brain structure. Studies have shown that exposure to community violence causes changes to the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala, the regions of the brain that govern memory, decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation, as explained in this research on childhood trauma and brain development.

When children experience stress at an early age, the amygdala becomes sensitized, and prefrontal regulatory capacity is impaired. Children are therefore wired to detect threats rather than to learn and build relationships, as outlined in this systematic review on childhood adversity and neural development. School systems, the courts, and the community label this behavior as aggressive or defiant and punish the child rather than seeking to understand the need for support. By doing this, we’re cutting off the very supports developing children need and portraying the resulting harm caused by the lack of support to the child as a family problem.

The “failed family” narrative not only mislabels the source of blame but also destroys the opportunity for recovery. When a community feels broken, they claim that brokenness as part of its personal identity. Parents have been pathologized and withdrawn from the family system. When children are punished for exhibiting trauma-related behavior instead of receiving treatment, the cycle continues.

Work done by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network on trauma and urban poverty documents the interaction of poverty and trauma on a systemic basis and creates a circular reference in family systems: parental distress reduces the ability of the parent to parent effectively; as a result, their children become more vulnerable; as their child becomes more vulnerable, parental distress intensifies. To break this cycle, investment needs to occur across the entire system rather than through surveillance of individual families.

Families in these communities need to have access, not judgment. Communities need access to affordable mental health care, stable housing, quality education, and living wage jobs. Parent-child bonding has been demonstrated to be one of the biggest protective factors for Black youth who are exposed to community violence; however, parent-child bonding becomes more difficult when parents are dealing with depression, economic stress, and institutional distrust, as highlighted in this PMC research on parenting and stress. To support the Black family, investment is needed in the conditions that allow them to show up fully for their children, rather than placing the burden on them of providing stability in the absence of continued support.

Violence occurring in Black communities is categorized as an issue of governance and public health as well as a systems-based issue. Until we treat violence in Black communities as an issue of governance by addressing the structural disinvestment, trauma-informed family support, and the dismantling of policy frameworks that allow concentrated poverty to exist, progress will be nonexistent, and all attempts to fix this problem will be viewed as a surprise.

The families affected by this crisis are not broken; rather, they are burdened by cycles not of their own making. Furthermore, the cycles these families endure are sustained by systems that have failed them in the past. Therefore, if we are to truly support the Black family, we must stop diagnosing Black communities and instead work towards dismantling those structural levers that create the harm.

Joshua “J. Jones” is a public safety and community health leader based in Mobile, Alabama. He serves as Director of a hospital-based violence intervention program and has prior experience in law enforcement, federal service, and military leadership. His work focuses on building cross-sector solutions that strengthen communities, reduce violence, and improve outcomes for families.