02: Violence and Trauma

“I keep emphasizing this concept of structural violence, which means, in a nutshell, harm that is preventable. And so we know that in 2017, we can prevent polio because we have vaccines. And so we know we can prevent violence, because we know what produces violence. Poverty produces violence.”

Data suggests that deaths due to violent injury have been decreasing throughout the United States. However, Black men are disproportionately overrepresented among victims of violent injury and are at higher risk of violent trauma recidivism than all other populations. In this episode, Dr. Richardson will focus on the impact of violence and trauma among young Black men and models of prevention.

---

Dr. Joseph B. Richardson, Jr., is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Medical Anthropology in the Departments of African-American Studies and Anthropology at the University of Maryland at College Park. He completed his doctoral studies at Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice and his Bachelor’s Degree in African and African-American Studies at the University of Virginia. Dr. Richardson has completed a Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Chicago and an NIMH Clinical Scholars Research Training Fellowship in HIV/AIDS, Mental Health and Substance Use in Correctional Healthcare at the Morehouse School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Richardson’s research focuses on three areas: 1) Violence and Trauma among Black boys and young Black men; 2) Incarceration as a social determinant of health; 3) Parenting strategies for low-income Black boys. He is currently the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Capital Region Violence Intervention Program, a hospital-based violence intervention program, at the Prince George’s Hospital Trauma Center in Cheverly, MD. Prince George’s Hospital Trauma Center is the busiest level II trauma center in the US, serving over 700 victims of violent injury a year. Dr. Richardson is also Principal Investigator for the Smart Re-Entry Project for Prince George’s County. This project examines the criminal and trauma recidivism outcomes of 400 recently released young Black men (ages 18-34) from Prince George’s County Jail. His selected publications have appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Urban Health, Journal of Surgical Research, Journal of Black Psychology, and the Huffington Post. He is also the producer of the award nominated short documentary Bullets Without Names and the producer and host of the Working Class Intellectuals podcast. Dr. Richardson is a proud native of Philadelphia.