Man on the street
Researchers who work in at-risk communities too often focus on the deficits in those neighborhoods, and spend too little time identifying important community resources. So says Duane Thomas, assistant professor in Penn's Graduate School of Education, and an expert in youth violence prevention, who works to identify early risk factors for violent behavior in kids and develop ways to preempt this behavior. He says one of the best predictors of whether people will engage in violence in adulthood is their early history of aggression, as well as environmental factors, including the availability of guns and exposure to community violence.
Recently, Thomas was named as co-investigator to the Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center, a partnership between CHOP, Drexel, Penn and Temple and community-based organizations. In this role he'll spearhead the centerpiece project, which will address violence in West and Southwest Philadelphia. " I think our approach will be unique [because] community members will be involved every step of the way."
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