The Premature Loss of the Black Male and Its Implications on the Black Family System and Community: A Proposed 12-Step Grief Support Group Model
type: CreativeWork
description: Premature deaths, ages 15–44, and loss of Black males through homicide, along with suicide and systemic violence, and incarceration, create lifelong emotional and psychological trauma for those who remain behind in Black family settings and society. U.S. social injustices against Black communities and multigenerational losses and racial harm create specific population-based challenges, such as questioning care, lack of accessibility to competent resources, and Black identity issues, which traditional grief recovery programs struggle to help adequately. Even though approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, complicated grief treatment, present-centered therapy, trauma-focused therapy, including eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, and forgiveness therapy are proven treatments to address grief, their suitability for Black survivors of violence and family members of the incarcerated requires deeper research. Other models, such as art therapy, play therapy, hip-hop therapy, culturally adapted therapy, group therapy and support groups, and faith-based interventions, may be more culturally attuned but less structured. This review evaluates treatment methods and 12-step programs, modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, while discussing their utilization in grief healing, together with their minimal effectiveness for Black victims. This review reveals insufficient existing methods amid the crisis and therefore supports the creation of a specific 12- step grief model that targets Black communities.
abstract: Premature deaths, ages 15–44, and loss of Black males through homicide, along with suicide and systemic violence, and incarceration, create lifelong emotional and psychological trauma for those who remain behind in Black family settings and society. U.S. social injustices against Black communities and multigenerational losses and racial harm create specific population-based challenges, such as questioning care, lack of accessibility to competent resources, and Black identity issues, which traditional grief recovery programs struggle to help adequately. Even though approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, complicated grief treatment, present-centered therapy, trauma-focused therapy, including eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, and forgiveness therapy are proven treatments to address grief, their suitability for Black survivors of violence and family members of the incarcerated requires deeper research. Other models, such as art therapy, play therapy, hip-hop therapy, culturally adapted therapy, group therapy and support groups, and faith-based interventions, may be more culturally attuned but less structured. This review evaluates treatment methods and 12-step programs, modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous, while discussing their utilization in grief healing, together with their minimal effectiveness for Black victims. This review reveals insufficient existing methods amid the crisis and therefore supports the creation of a specific 12- step grief model that targets Black communities.
author: Smith, Alicia
keywords: African American survivors of homicide and mass incarceration, Hip-hop culture, Black grief, Disproportionate Black male health, Homicide anti-Blackness and Intraracial Black homicide, anti-Black misandry, Clinical Psychology
date published: 2025-06-01T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:21:38Z
provider: National-Louis University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: National-Louis University