Exposure to community violence: Toward a more expansive definition and approach to research

Abstract

Community violence has been identified as a pressing public health crisis in the United States. A wealth of research establishes robust connections between youth’s exposure to community violence and an array of negative psychological outcomes. In this article, we argue that developmental scientists need to adopt a more expansive definition of community violence and use a broader range of approaches to understand and intervene in the current epidemic of violence. First, we discuss problems with definitions of community violence in research and propose several types of violent incidents that should no longer be excluded (i.e., gender-based harassment, sexual assault). We also highlight the need for a more nuanced and thorough examination of the dimensions associated with community violence (e.g., severity, physical proximity, relational proximity, chronicity). Next, we discuss methodological problems encumbering research on community violence. Finally, we propose recommendations for research, emphasizing the need to account for children’s intersecting social identities.