Speaker discusses causes of violent crime

In 1992, 26,570 Americans lost their lives as a result of interpersonal violence, Chukwudi Onwuachi-Saunders said Friday as she discussed violence as a public health problem in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall. Onwuachi-Saunders, deputy health commissioner for Philadelphia, said public health cannot completely curb violence because it "is truly a psycho-social problem." She said in order to try to prevent violence, people must be aware of who is at risk in potentially violent situations. She explained that both the perpetrator and victim tend to be men of the same race in a typical homicide. She also pointed out that the victim usually knows the offender. "So we're talking about males who predominantly look like each other, who know each other," she said. The deputy health commissioner said the media's presentation of violence is not true to fact. African-Americans are made to seem like perpetrators of violence more often than they actually are, she explained. Although homicide rates for African-Americans are greater than those for whites, the number of homicides committed by blacks is not significantly higher than the number for whites, she added. And she said, contrary to popular belief, most homicides are not associated with a felony. The majority of homicides are caused by conflict and arguments in which the perpetrator already knows the victim. Onwuachi-Saunders said an African-American male's chance of victimization is 1 in 27, while the rate for his white counterpart is 1 in 205. "Homicide being the leading cause of death for African-Americans is nothing new," she said. "But what is new is the dramatic increase for the younger African-American male." She also said since 1984, the rate for deaths in which firearms are used has skyrocketed. Onwuachi-Saunders also spoke about the community program Operation Peace for Philadelphia. She said the program is a "community-wide comprehensive neighborhood-based public private violence prevention initiative." OPP consists of 12 teams, including schools and media and arts, which try to prevent violence. She also said it is important to look at where children learn violent behavior. "If young people are showing some type of behavior that we as adults are not pleased with, sometimes we're to blame," she said. "They learned it from somewhere." She said perpetrators cannot be separated from victims because perpetrators were once victims. Onwuachi-Saunders said collective responsibility is a key to reducing the amount of violence in the United States. "It's not enough to target out the African-American male because he doesn't live in isolation," she said. "He's a part of a whole, just as we are all a part of a whole." Many audience members seemed to feel the lecture was worthwhile. College freshman Margarita Woc, who is originally from Guatemala, said, "I was amazed ? how much violence is a problem in this country." The lecture was presented by the College and the Howard Hughes Student Research Initiative, in conjunction with the Student National Medical Association.