Lessons Learned From a Co-production Community Effort to Reduce Gun Violence Near Bodegas/Corner Store
Bodegas and corner stores are valuable community spaces. However, at times, they can become vulnerable to violence. Our analyses indicate that some bodegas/corner stores in Newark co-locate with areas experiencing high levels of gun violence.
The NPSC launched a multi-stakeholder co-production effort to address gun violence near bodegas/corner stores.
Gun Violence Near Bodegas/Corner Stores
Through a place-based approach using Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM), we identified bodegas/corner stores as problem places co-locating with incidents of gun violence. A second analysis sought to further prioritize this community co-production effort by pinpointing the top 10 bodegas/corner stores with the highest concentration of nearby gun violence. A comprehensive data report listing the addresses of these businesses, a temporal analysis, and the type of crimes committed near these establishments was disseminated across all organizations participating in this co-production effort to prevent and reduce gun violence.
Our analyses also determined that bodegas/corner stores are predominantly present in areas with low access to supermarkets and fresh produce options (find more information here).
In 2022, nearly 60% of gun violence (hit, no-hit shootings, and homicides involving firearms) took place within 2 blocks of a bodega/corner store.
All incidents of gun violence clustered in less than 5% of the city.
88% of homicides near at-risk bodegas/corner stores occurred at nighttime in 2022, mostly between 6 pm and 11 pm.
A Co-Production Effort to Reduce Gun Violence Near Bodegas/Corner Stores
The NPSC launched in 2022 a co-production effort that brought together the Newark Police Division, the Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, the Brick City Peace Collective, and PSE&G (New Jersey’s utility company), among other community stakeholders, to reduce gun violence near bodegas/corner stores.
This multi-stakeholder co-production effort involved the use of code enforcement to address code violations (NPD-led), a community survey to better understand the conditions surrounding these spaces (OVPTR-led), a low-cost lighting improvement program to install floodlights facing the stores (PSEG-led), and an effort to bring fresh produce to bodegas/corner stores to mitigate the effect of food deserts (City of Newark-led).
Evaluating the Effect of a Co-Production Effort to Prevent Gun Violence near Bodegas/Corner Stores
To evaluate this project, the NPSC conducted an interrupted time series analysis of gun violence counts within two blocks (equivalent to 1,000 ft.) of the targeted bodegas/corner stores. The graph below suggests this co-production effort helped reduce gun violence during the six months following the program's implementation. Moreover, the results suggest a 9% decrease in gun violence counts over a one-year time period. This decrease is, however, non-significant. These results indicate that community-led, place-based interventions are a promising strategy to disrupt gun violence near bodegas/corner stores. The evaluation also reveals that localized co-production efforts must be sustained and recurrent (i.e., not a limited intervention) to take full advantage of the positive benefits observed in reducing crime opportunities and improving community safety.
