Lessons Learned From a Co-production Community Effort to Reduce Gun Violence Near Bodegas
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 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 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 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.
All incidents of gun violence clustered in less than 5% of the city.
88% of homicides near at-risk bodegas 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 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
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. 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.
