APPENDIX D FOCUS GROUP – PEOPLE WHO HAVE PERPETRATED CRIMES

Focus Group Draft Report

RE: Focus Group with those who perpetrated violence to learn about ideas to curb future violence in Philadelphia County

DATE: Feb. 8, 2023

FROM: Systems Integration Unit

Overview

This project came out of the DBHIDS “Trauma Related to Violence” subcommittee discussions. This subcommittee works on supporting the Philadelphia community who have trauma related to violence. Dr. Megan Corrado suggested that this subcommittee gather qualitative research through conversations with individuals who committed violent crimes in Philadelphia to understand the root causes of violent crime and to propose solutions. Following up on this idea, we gathered five individuals who committed violent crimes in their past and listened to their life experiences and what led them to violence. We listened to their insight, from their lived experience, about what actions could have changed the trajectory of their life and have proposed solutions to prevent violent crime in Philadelphia.

Conversation 1: Adults who committed violent crime in Philadelphia

We spoke to five adults who currently work for Philadelphia Anti-Drug Anti-Violence Network (PAAN) who self-identified as growing up in Philadelphia and who committed violent crimes. George Mosee from PAAN connected these individuals to Kyle Carter, Assistant Director of Systems Integration, and Rebecca Curry, Master of Public Health Intern, to participate in this focus group. The interviewees all accepted the invitation and actively participated in this discussion. The focus group was administered over Zoom on Dec. 19, 2022, at 6 p.m.

Below are the notes from this conversation. Included are the questions asked of the participants and their answers.

1. How has violence impacted your life personally?

a. Participant A – affected life since a kid. Grandfather used to abuse grandma, he shot her in the head, but she didn’t die. 1992 his friend was murdered. Been around violence whole life. Whole life and raised – if someone slighted you, violence was response. Learned violence.

b. Participant B – grew up around violence. Grew up in 70s and gangs then in Nicetown. Watched as a kid, six years old riding a big wheel, gang members hitting each other over head with wine bottles, saw guy stabbed in the arm, and mom grabbed him and took him inside. Seen people get shot in the street. Working at PAAN he was shot in the right arm, by a kid (16/17 years old). He has coped with it all because he was immune to it. Violence been around whole life – streets, father abused mother when he was young, seen people being shot.

c. Participant C – Violence comes from family – father overly aggressive with mother and he took out his aggression he saw at home and took it out with those in the streets since he couldn’t fight his father. Saw people in the crowd was fighting and that was his surroundings.

d. Participant F – grew up around it. Closest cousin was shot and killed when he was 16 and participant was 12. Uncle doing life, he saw intimate partner violence with his mom. Seen a lot.

e. Participant D– violence was around her whole life. Saw her mom beaten by a man, two brothers facing life, cousin was shot at the corner of her block (started to tear up when talking). a. Participant E – yes, gangs. Sees on a daily basis on social media for cliques. Five or six guys with no structure and violence comes from there. b. Participant A – Gangs since the 70s. Cliques are not new. Different neighborhoods have fist fight every now and then. Now seeing a lot of guns. Uptick in stabbings – couple months quadruple. Stabbed with knives. Triggered over drill music, rap music, Reddit. Younger people – shooters and victims are getting younger. c. Participant B – For A lot of these kids drill music was explained to him recently music has a tendency to influence young people and can get folks to want to participate in what is in the music. Desensitized to violence, even to guns. Ghost gun – order different parts to get shipped and assemble the guns themselves. Kids that are as young as 13/14 years old. Shaped by surroundings and the older kids and think it’s “cool” to kill someone. Kids think it is some kind of game until they see the outcome – jail. Kids don’t think they are going to get shot. Same day that a kid was shot, someone died. Shooter didn’t see who he wanted to shoot so decided to shoot up the corner –one died. Two kids were shot when that happened shot, and other person was shot as well. d. Participant E – Kids don’t understand the consequences of the violence. Kids are getting younger doing the crimes. “Wave of death” carries on way after the act itself. Goes to the Juvenile Justice Center to talk to youth. When a crime is committed, it affects the whole community. Kids don’t understand this. e. Participant C – used to ask the old heads but don’t have old heads. Who you socialize with everyday are all the same age. No one to look up to anymore because old heads are on drugs, dead, or in jail. Young people have no one to respect/look up to. a. Participant C - Lack of respect. Kids don’t have any guidance. There is no respect for the police today. Threatening police today and someone is teaching young kids that they will not be held accountable as an adult will be. Kids do not respect authority. No one cares. b. Participant E – only care about the white people c. Participant D – Racism is a big part. On TV, white people get away with stuff. Black people won’t shoot a white person and will shoot their own d. Participant A – All the isms play a big role/part. How the cops treat those in our community plays a part. Modern policing theory is that it was based off of slavery. Deep conversation and deep roots. e. Participant B – agrees with participant. Cops are out there to do a job. Politics play a role. Participant was incarcerated but he was blamed for something that he didn’t do (threatening someone when he wasn’t there) and the news media were involved. This led the to distrust the police/media/investigative reporting. Politics is involved, selling of newspapers was important to them. Participant was given a life sentence. He was sentenced under the crack law. Participant learned the crack law (disparity between crack and cocaine sentences). Some cops might care but for a lot of them it was just business. Spent around 17 years in prison. Race did play a role in the sentencing he was sentenced under. A lot of components. Act like they care but don’t really and we get the bad end of it. We are self-destructing out here. Adding insult to injury. Need to change the mindset of the people/kids and convince them that this is not the way to go. Late ’80s – carrying a firearm without a license and disorderly conduct before selling crack. Said the cops were shocked that he didn’t have a criminal record at 18 – graduated high school and started community college. f. Participant D – Kids not having anyone to look up to. Older people are taken away due to crooked laws and left with no one to look up to so they only have each other to look up to and are now killing each other. One big vicious cycle. They are not interested in WHY things happened and just wanted to lock people up. g. Participants C & E – no one to look up to – only the radio, videos they are making, social media. a. Participant A – he is on life time parole as a juvenile lifer. His group is different – folks like him got a lot of resources and support. Digital literacy, housing support, how to use an iPhone, he was prepared to go home. He was in prison. Didn’t ask what our needs were, they just told us what our needs were. He has been home for a couple of years. He has not had issues with his probation officer. People he has talked to have not had problems with their probation officer. Maybe because he is older. He got what he needed and he thought it was that way across the state. Support groups who met twice a month for support. b. Participants – C & E – when he came home, not set up? One little misstep, they will get locked up. c. Participant D – few years ago got off of probation in a surrounding county. Popping up during her probation. They never reached out to ask how she was doing or asked about her kids. a. Participants C, D, & E - Guidance – didn’t get the help they needed. If he had someone to say hey, it would have changed his life. b. Participant B – if you have a positive person in your life who is a positive influence. Needs schooling. Mentee’s mother passed away, his father isn’t around, kid called Participant “old head.” Participant has adopted him as his old head and can reach out to the participant. Participant is telling him from experience. Telling the kids from experience is helpful he thinks. Participant started his time in Kansas. POSITIVE INFLUENCE. If the kids still want to take that route, the kids cannot say they didn’t know what to expect. Show the younger generation what to do and word spreads that way. Doesn’t have to be an old head who has lived experience but someone to show them the way/another way. c. Participants C & E – someone who was there consistently would have helped to change the direction of his life. Male figure consistent. Didn’t think he had to listen to no one, he’s fly, and he doesn’t have to listen to anyone. Start from home. He is a product from everyone. d. Participant D – mom of four sons. Keeps her sons in positive things and keep positive people around them. She doesn’t have a male relationship because she doesn’t want people in and out of her kid’s life. a. Participant D – need trauma counseling, no mothers, no fathers, they need love. Mental health, background checks for people that work at these places. b. Participant A – focus on awareness, more rec centers that are operational, spaces for kids. c. Kyle - Mental health awareness and as African Americans – mental health challenges that are unique to this situation. ELSC mentioned that we have resources but not everyone knows about them. d. Participant B – influence of money situation. Financial education. Budget money. Simple things like care for themselves. Need all programs – how to cook and take care of oneself- life skills. Nutrition information. Kids focus on money – rob someone for little or nothing. Kids might not have responsible a adult. Learn how to get a job and be responsible themselves. Teach a brother how to fish. Mindset needs to change to learn how to make a legitimate living – may prevent robberies. Teach how to earn money legitimately. Change mindset. e. Participants C & D – financial literacy.

2. Do you feel like the presence of gangs or cliques is leading to the uptick of violence?

3. Do you feel that underlying issues of respect or distrust with police are fueling inner city violence?

Racism – wants to look at you like always associated as criminals and violence. Crack law came about when the basketball player snorted crack and died. He has been home 2.5 years.

4. If anyone has been in the probation process, what resources that might have not been offered that maybe should have been that can potentially prevent someone from reoffending?

5. What do you think would be helpful to keep people from committing violence?

6. What programs needed?

Takeaways

Many of the interviewees had similar experiences in their youth including domestic violence, feelings of not belonging, lacking in life skills, unmet social determinants of health, and lacking in supportive adult figures for stability. In addition, highlighted below are some take aways from this conversation:

• Drill music trivializes the seriousness of situations and makes the issues mentioned in the music seem “cool,” reinforcing this mentioned behavior.

• Youth are resourceful in obtaining weapons, even purchasing pieces and assembling weapons themselves.

• Social media boundaries are only helpful when there is an adult in the household to monitor social media use.

• The loss of adult mentors or “old heads” hierarchy in neighborhoods and cultures of communities.

• Acknowledgment of racism in the police infrastructure and criminal legal policies. Communities of Color and Black communities do not trust and experience violence at the hands of police.

Ideas for Next Steps

Reflecting on insights gleaned from this conversation, we offer a few suggestions.

• Work alongside domestic violence agencies to support youth who live in households where there is or has been domestic violence.

• Connect youth and the Parks and Recreation Department for safe environments to play and for food access.

• Connect youth to life skills training through the school district of Philadelphia.

• Implement and monitor universal behavioral health screening and social determinants of health screening for youth.

• Connect “opportunity youth” to mentoring programs such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and MENTOR to provide adult support to this population.

• Expand the Police Athletic League to build trust between youth, the community, and police.

• Create and manage a network of support groups for individuals and families who have been affected by gun violence. There should be differentiation between support groups for survivors of gun violence, families of survivors of gun violence, and families of victims of gun violence. These groups have different needs, and each need could be best addressed separately.

Conclusion

This focus group was a powerful and unique lens to look at the gun violence issues in this city. This conversation centered the humanity of individuals responsible for gun violence and created a space to learn more about the reasons choices were made to proactively prevent future violent crime. We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to choose a different path for themselves besides a violent one. We look forward to supporting policy changes and programs for Philadelphia’s youth to give them a chance at a healthy and successful life without violence.