Associate Prof. Henrika McCoy | UIC photo
By ZOE FISHER
Homicide Watch Chicago
There are numerous groups and programs dedicated to stopping the violence that is ravaging some areas of the city, but a new study at UIC aims to work on the other side of the problem — those left in its wake.
The National Institute of Justice is funding a three-year, $1.5 million study at the University of Illinois at Chicago aimed at identifying resources needed by victims of violence.
The study hopes to break down the financial, emotional and medical barriers young, Black, male violence survivors face, and ramp up the ones that are already helping them with support.
“African-American male adolescents face disproportionate risk for death or injury resulting from assaultive violence,” according to the American Psychology Association.
Thus, the survey it created is specifically geared toward 18- to 24-year-old black men, including transgender, who have experienced any sort of violence, such as hate crimes, sexual assault, physical violence, or violence in the military or prison.
The three-phase program will interview 780 men over three years. So far, 2016 has dedicated to conducting background research, creating a questionnaire, and recruiting participants.
In 2017 and 2018, researchers plan to distribute the survey locally in Illinois and nationally in areas with a high population of young Black males.
In Chicago, the steady violence makes it a prime region to begin the work, before heading to other areas such as Atlanta and Philadelphia.
A 2013 Illinois Department of Public Health report showed almost 500 men 20-24 were admitted to a trauma center in Illinois with injuries classified as “Firearm (All Intents), Intentional Injury/Self-Inflicted, and Intentional Injury/Inflicted by Others.”
The incidents encompassed men from various socioeconomic classes.
There is a pointed interest in enlisting a “broad array of men,” according to principal investigator Henrika McCoy, an associate professor at UIC’s Jane Addams College of Social Work.
The study will gather men from all walks of life, including students, working men and even the gang-affiliated. To accomplish this, McCoy will look to some unorthodox recruitment methods, such as surveying tattoo parlors, barbershops and movie theaters.
She found that a general consensus is that black men experience violence because they did something wrong, like join a gang, but the study includes all types of violence and lifestyles to help combat that ideology.
McCoy practiced social work for 15 years in Chicago, focusing on mental health delinquency.
During that time, she mainly observed black men who suffered from mental health issues, such as depression, but not mental illnesses, she said.
“Going to therapy is not necessarily seen as valuable or understood,” McCoy said. People get shot, but she wants to focus on what happens after.
The study begins at a time when state officials have cut funding for anti-violence programs. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s 2015 executive order to freeze funds dramatically slashed budgets for initiatives around the city.
Because of a federal grant, the UIC study was able to hire a group of black male moderators to facilitate the two-hour focus group survey. The sensitive experiences participants share may leave them in a vulnerable state, which is why McCoy chose moderators the participants can relate to by race and gender.
The facilitators come from various professions, but most graduated or taught at UIC.
Each group consists of 8-10 participants who will be compensated $50 for their time. They will be asked to provide specific instances of violence, appropriate questions to ask other black men suffering abuse, what people should know about their reality, and the services they need, McCoy said.
“We want to get their opinion on how we should talk about violence and their experiences,” UIC Survey and Research Lab staff member Isabel Farrar,who serves as project coordinator, said.
Thus far, McCoy hasn’t found any insurmountable hurdles. In fact, there’s been an outpouring of support from the community, including from women.
Their interest initially surprised McCoy, but she said that mothers and girlfriends can give insight into things that men didn’t notice about themselves, such as sleep patterns or mood swings.
The uniqueness of the study fills a gap in national research on violence among young black men.
McCoy’s plan: Give “voice to people that often don’t have a voice.”