Understanding Structural Violence in Community Violence Intervention (CVI): A Multi-City Qualitative Analysis of Practitioner Perspectives.

Abstract

The discourse on community violence has expanded over the years, shifting from a focus on interpersonal physical harm to a broader understanding that includes systemic and structural harm. Structural violence, characterized by institutionalized inequities in health, education, and generational wealth, disproportionately impacts marginalized communities and reflects deliberate systems of oppression designed to maintain power imbalances. In community-based violence intervention and prevention (CVIP), identifying how harm can be systematically perpetuated is critical for developing and advancing structurally grounded evaluative measures and training strategies for practitioners. This qualitative study involved interviews and focus groups with community violence intervention (CVI) practitioners (N = 45) from Sacramento, Milwaukee, and Baltimore. We analyzed participants' narratives to explore their understandings of the root causes of community-based firearm violence, with particular attention to the core tenets of structural violence: power, marginalization, oppression, adversity, and trauma. Findings revealed that CVI practitioners hold varying levels of structural violence expertise, ranging from individual-level explanations of violence to critical accounts of how systemic forces cultivate and reproduce structural harm. Participants discussed how government divestment, institutional neglect, and collective and vicarious trauma shape the conditions contributing to community violence. Their reflections underscore the need for standardized training and professional development that embeds structural frameworks into CVIP operations and program evaluations. As key actors in CVIP, CVI practitioners must be equipped with the knowledge and skills to address the structural drivers of community violence. Investing in their capacity for research and advocacy will strengthen the field's effectiveness, scale, and legitimacy in preventing community-based firearm violence through structurally informed practice and evaluation.