Urban Gun Violence

Melvin Delgado, MSW, PhD, is professor of social work at Boston University. He is the former chair of Macro Practice. He has over forty years of practice, research, and scholarship focused on urban population groups, specifically within the Latinx community. Delgado’s research has addressed a variety of social issues and needs, and he has published over thirty books on urban community practice topics. He is currently the editor of the Oxford University book series on social justice and youth community practice. He is the author of Sanctuary Cities, Communities, and Organizations: A Nation at a Crossroads, Urban Youth Trauma: Using Community Intervention to Overcome Gun Violence, and many other books.

Delgado argues that a strategy involving the remediation and "greening" of vacant lots (including gardening) has considerable potential to reduce gun violence at the micro-level in urban neighborhoods (p. 24). The book begins with an extensive review of the academic literature on the causes of gun violence in American cities and ways to alleviate it. In the latter half of the volume, the author posits an intervention strategy focused on the remediation of vacant lots tailored to the needs and situations of local neighborhoods. In support of his argument he presents a case study from Southwest Detroit. This book primarily geared toward students and scholars working in the fields of urban social work, urban sociology, urban geography, and urban planning. Practitioners in the field working at institutions such as neighborhood development organizations and local planning agencies may also find this work interesting. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

• Acknowledgments SECTION I: CONTEXT SETTING Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Socioecological and Community Assets: Capacity Enhancement Conceptual Foundation Chapter 3: Community Gun Violence and Community Trauma Chapter 4: Statistics and Strategies for Addressing Gun Violence SECTION II: MULTIFACETED VIEWS OF VACANT LOTS Chapter 5: Vacant Lot Remediation: Context Setting Chapter 6: Vacant Lot Remediation Chapter 7: Potential Benefits/Detriments of Converting Vacant Lots SECTION III: CASE ILLUSTRATION Chapter 8: Case Illustration (Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, Southwest Detroit) SECTION IV: LESSONS FOR THE FIELD Chapter 9: Research Chapter 10: Vacant Lots: Practice and Educational Implications References Index About the Author