Three-Part Series on Violence, Economic Justice, and Community Solutions: Part 1 - The Root of the Crisis

The Impact Report Three-Part Series on Violence, Economic Justice, and Community Solutions —Uncovering Root Causes, Exposing Hard Truths, and Elevating What Actually Works

Part 1: The Root of the Crisis – How Economic Marginalization Fuels Community Violence

In the early hours of July 5, 2025, downtown Indianapolis became the latest American city rocked by tragedy. Gunfire erupted near Illinois and Washington Streets, leaving two teenage boys dead and five others injured, all between the ages of 15 and 16. What should have been a night of celebration following Fourth of July festivities instead turned into a scene of chaos and grief. Families mourned; first responders rushed in; city leaders faced the cameras once again, grappling with a question that echoes far beyond my beloved city of Indianapolis: Why does this keep happening?

The truth is that this tragedy is not unique to the Circle City; all across the country, that same holiday weekend, cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore also reported spikes in violence. In New York, shootings over the Fourth left multiple victims wounded and/or dead; in smaller cities like Brockton, Massachusetts, holiday celebrations were similarly marred by gunfire.

While each incident carries its own heartbreaking details, together they reveal a national pattern: No city is immune to violence. For too long, we’ve been focusing mainly on “crime” and enforcement, which makes violence seem like just a problem of individual actions. However, as more evidence and real stories from many communities reveal, the picture is much more complex. Unfortunately, many people aren’t hearing the voices that point to more systemic root causes behind the violence that plagues our cities.

Beyond the Headlines: What’s Really Fueling Violence in Our Communities

But to truly grasp why this keeps happening, we must shift our focus from the individual to the systemic, to the decades of economic abandonment and racial exclusion that have left communities struggling to survive. Violent crime is often the consequence of decades of economic marginalization, systemic racism, disinvestment, and disenfranchisement. Where opportunity has been stripped away, where families have been left without access to living-wage work, quality education, stable housing, or employer-based benefits, despair and hopelessness eventually take root.

Communities, like the ones shaken during the holiday weekend across America, are not broken because of some moral failing. They have been fractured by policies and practices that have deliberately concentrated poverty, extracted wealth, and excluded Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor residents from the American Dream, or the promise of pursuing economic security and mobility. Until we are willing to name and address these root causes, the cycle will continue, and the headlines will repeat, city after city, year after year.

In this special edition of The Impact Report, we ask hard but necessary questions:

• What are the historical roots of today’s crises?

• How have racism, economic exclusion, and disinvestment shaped the neighborhoods now experiencing the highest rates of violence?

• And why must any serious solution focus not just on law enforcement or personal responsibility, but on repairing the economic and social fractures that have been decades in the making and continue to marginalize many communities plagued by violence?

When Jobs Disappear, Families Struggle — And Violence Rises

To understand how these root causes play out on the ground, we must look at the concrete ways that economic marginalization fractures families, destabilizes communities, and sets the stage for rising violence.

As Harvard criminologist Robert Sampson has shown, when you control for family disruption, as defined by rates of divorce, separation, out-of-wedlock births, and economic marginalization, violent crime rates are remarkably similar across Black and White communities. The root issue is not race; it’s economic and social exclusion. Sampson’s framework states that it is not just about marital status, but about the absence of two-parent family structures and the accompanying social and economic resources and safety they tend to provide, especially in economically marginalized communities.

Consider the case of Flint, Michigan. Once a thriving auto manufacturing hub, Flint experienced massive job losses following plant closures and deindustrialization in the 1980s and 1990s. As male unemployment soared, researchers observed a parallel rise in divorce rates, single-parent households, and out-of-wedlock births, a local illustration of what Harvard criminologist Robert Sampson called “family disruption.”

As the saying goes, “no romance without finance.” When economic foundations crumble, relationships, family stability, and community cohesion often suffer as a result. This wasn’t unique to Flint; similar patterns have been documented across Rust Belt cities and urban centers nationwide. Crucially, Sampson’s research underscores that family breakdown is not the cause of economic marginalization — it is a consequence of economic disenfranchisement — and when combined, they help explain rising violence, especially among disconnected young men.

In Chicago’s South and West Sides, decades of factory closures, disinvestment, and redlining stripped communities of stable jobs and economic opportunity. As unemployment soared, so did rates of family breakup, also known as family disruption. By the late 1990s, more than 70% of Black children in Chicago were born into single-parent households, not because of cultural failure, but because, as many residents say, “it’s difficult to build a family, and a community, on broken economic ground.” Research shows that when joblessness spreads, marriage rates decline, and young people become more vulnerable to gangs and underground economies that step in to fill the vacuum left by the absence of stable, two-parent households and community-wide social accountability.

This pattern isn’t confined to Chicago; it also echoes in other industrial cities, such as Detroit. Once the proud center of America’s auto industry, Detroit saw its population hollow out and unemployment skyrocket after the collapse of manufacturing. A city built for 1.8 million residents shrank to just over 600,000, all while maintaining the same vast, crumbling infrastructure. Studies show that from the 1970s onward, the decline of blue-collar employment led to rising male joblessness, a sharp increase in out-of-wedlock births, and the unraveling of the informal social ties that had once anchored neighborhoods and were held together by working parents earning a living wage. Predictably, rates of violence rose in step with economic abandonment.

Decades of structural racism have concentrated poverty, disinvestment, and joblessness in Black neighborhoods, weakening family stability, eroding educational pathways, and negatively impacting once strong social ties. Sampson’s research is clear: family disruption is not the cause of economic marginalization; it’s the consequence of economic marginalization. And when unemployment and poverty rise, so too does community violence and violent crime rates.

More Than Jobs: How Lost Opportunity Tore Apart Black Households

It is often overlooked, or deliberately ignored, that prior to the wave of deindustrialization that hit America’s cities in the 1970s and 1980s, marriage rates among African Americans actually exceeded those of white Americans. From the 1950s through the early 1970s, despite facing segregation and structural racism, Black communities maintained strong rates of marriage and two-parent households. This was not because conditions were perfect, but because employment opportunities, especially in manufacturing, provided a pathway to economic stability, family formation, and community cohesion.

But as America’s industrial base crumbled, along with the shuttering of factories, the flight of jobs overseas as a result of global competition, and the automation revolution, Black workers were the first to be pushed out. In cities like Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and Gary, Black male unemployment rates skyrocketed. According to Robert Sampson and other leading sociologists, as male joblessness increased, marriage rates declined, family disruption rose, and youth became increasingly disconnected from stable adult networks.

This wasn’t about individual failings or “cultural breakdown.” It was, and remains to this day, about structural economic exclusion. Research shows a direct connection where economic marginalization takes hold, family disruptions occur, and crime, particularly violent crime, follows, regardless of race. And where structural racism has locked Black men out of meaningful economic participation, it has not only devastated families but has also fueled cycles of violence that policing and curfews alone cannot solve.

Coming Up in Part Two: In the next installment of The Impact Report, we examine why familiar responses like curfews, arrests, and “keep your kids at home” appeals fall far short of addressing the root causes of violence. We’ll explore how criminalizing young people for minor offenses doesn’t prevent violence; it deepens cycles of disconnection, derails futures, and reinforces the very conditions that fuel harm. Part Two challenges us to move beyond punishment toward real solutions – reconnecting youth to education, employment, and opportunity as the foundation for safety and hope.

Call to Action

Public Safety Leaders

• Shift resources toward prevention, not just enforcement — invest in community violence intervention programs, trauma recovery, and youth outreach.

• Partner with schools, workforce programs, and community organizations to connect youth to opportunity, not just police supervision.

• Train officers on the economic and social drivers of violence and support diversion programs that keep young people out of the justice system.

Business Leaders

• Expand pathways for youth employment, internships, and apprenticeships, especially in marginalized neighborhoods.

• Commit to hiring justice-involved youth and removing unnecessary barriers to employment.

• Invest in local economic development initiatives that bring living-wage jobs, small business supports, and career pipelines to under-resourced communities.

 Community Leaders

• Support & fund long-term, community-led, crime prevention and violence reduction collective impact strategies and ensure affected residents have a seat at the table in policymaking.

• Fund initiatives that address root causes: education access, workforce development, housing stability, and healing-centered care.

• Invest in data systems and local research that track not just crime rates, but community well-being, opportunity, and resilience.

Buy the Book: If you want to dive deeper into the root causes of violence and explore real, community-based solutions, check out Wheeler Social Impact’s book, The Right Time to Do Right – Community-Based Crime Prevention and Juvenile Justice. Drawing on national research, local stories, and data-driven insights, it provides practical strategies for leaders, policymakers, and residents who are ready to move beyond quick fixes and tackle the systemic drivers of violence. Purchase your copy on Amazon or contact Wheeler Social Impact LLC to bring these critical conversations to your community.