Preventing Community Violence: A Case Study of Metro Detroit and Interfaith Activism

Community violence can have lasting impacts on populations that experience it, including but not limited to, financial damages, property damage, and psychological trauma. Therefore, exploring mechanisms of violence prevention is increasingly important, especially within the context of multicultural societies. This research does just that by approaching community violence prevention from an interdisciplinary perspective, including aspects of public health, political science, criminology, and sociology. This dissertation explores the interfaith organization InterFaith Leadership Council of Metro Detroit and those in the organization's network. It considers how interfaith leaders, through activism and dialogue, can contribute to community violence prevention. By applying the social ecological model and social disorganization theory, this research considers how to prevent community violence through building social capital, collective efficacy, and community capacity. This inquiry also utilized the social determinants of health to describe how violence and violence prevention is linked to community health. This dissertation uses qualitative data, including interviews, document analysis, and field notes to explore the mechanisms by which interfaith leadership can prevent community violence, specifically gang violence and violent extremism.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Planning, Governance, and Globalization

Department dc:contributor.department

Public Administration/Public Affairs

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Miller, Allison Denise

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Luke, Timothy W.
• Dixit, Priya

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Stephenson, Max O. Jr.
• Hawdon, James E.

• Community violence
• violence prevention
• interfaith
• social ecological model
• social disorganization theory
• social determinants of health

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:26489

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/98774