Proof in the Numbers: Tracking Change To Save Lives

"When violence drops, hope rises." These powerful words capture the remarkable transformation occurring in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where an innovative approach called Group Violence Intervention (GVI) has helped the city achieve over 500 consecutive days without a juvenile homicide. Once regularly appearing on lists of America's most dangerous places, Pine Bluff is now becoming a model for how smaller communities can effectively combat gun violence.

Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, a criminologist at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, leads the research measuring GVI's impact. Her team goes beyond tracking crime statistics, conducting surveys with youth in the justice system and their families to understand the full picture. This comprehensive approach reveals not just whether violence is decreasing, but why—identifying critical risk factors that can be addressed before tragedy strikes. "We're looking at it from all different points, which is very exciting, getting that full picture," Dr. ten Bensel explains.

What makes Pine Bluff's story particularly significant is how it demonstrates that strategies developed for major metropolitan areas can be successfully adapted to smaller communities. The program brings together law enforcement, social services, and families affected by violence to deliver a unified message: violence will not be tolerated, but help is available. This coordinated approach creates what Dr. ten Bensel describes as "almost a wraparound service to the problem." The results speak for themselves, showing that when communities apply evidence-based strategies with passion and persistence, even entrenched patterns of violence can change. As Dr. ten Bensel notes, gun violence impacts everything from trust in institutions to economic prosperity—making effective intervention strategies essential for community revitalization. "We're not just throwing money at the problem," she emphasizes. "We're actually being very thoughtful about how to spend our resources to get the most effective outcome."

Listen to A Shot at Hope on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, or visit smartjustice.org to discover how measurement turns good intentions into meaningful change.

Chapters

• 0:00 Violence Reduction Creates Hope
• 1:01 Pine Bluff's GVI Success Story
• 2:00 Measuring Impact Through Research
• 4:18 Beyond Crime Stats: Community Perspectives
• 7:04 The Far-Reaching Effects of Violence
• 9:00 Small Cities, Big Passion for Change
• 12:00 The Multifaceted Problem of Gun Violence

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When violence drops, hope rises. Safer streets change everything for residents, businesses and the future of a city. But how do we know if a strategy is truly making a difference? The answer by measuring progress. In this episode, we're exploring how tracking results can turn a strategy based on good intentions into real, measurable change Around the nation.

Speaker 1: 0:24

Gun violence is destroying families and weakening communities, and it's becoming a leading cause of death for young people. We know that in nearly every city, only a small number of people are driving most of the violence. An approach called group violence intervention, or GVI, identifies those individuals and engages with them directly, trying to offer them a way out before the violence occurs. It's not just about stopping the shootings. It's about building a community where everyone feels like they have a shot at hope.

Speaker 1: 1:01

A few years back, time Bluff, arkansas, decided that enough was enough. Shootings were tearing the community apart and the city regularly occupied a spot on the list of America's most dangerous places. Leaders launched Group Violence Intervention, or GVI, to change that story, and it's working. Pine Bluff went more than 500 days without a single juvenile homicide. Gvi is about bringing people together, including law enforcement, social services and families who've lost loved ones to violence, while those partners are out in the community tackling the problem head-on. A team of criminal justice experts has been working behind the scenes of criminal justice experts has been working behind the scenes studying what's working. Dr Toostie TenBenzel, a criminologist at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, has spent years studying violence and is leading the research to measure the impact of GVI in Pine Bluff.

Speaker 2: 2:00

So we want to understand what works right. We want to understand whether the program is actually being implemented the way that it was planned. If we were to move it to a different county, different area in Arkansas, we want to make sure that we have plenty of evidence that this is actually working on the ground. And so when you're doing research, program evaluations and so forth, really you're looking at after the program has been implemented. Do we see progress? And that allows us to make data-driven decisions. Do we invest more money in this one area? Are there things that need to be modified or changed to make it more effective, and so forth. So my research team that's kind of our is to look at the data, to look at the evidence, to look at, you know, if there is an increase or decrease in gun violence in that area.

Speaker 1: 2:52

The city supplies the numbers and the university analyzes the story that they tell.

Speaker 2: 2:57

So police incidents, what's happening in those incidences? When are gun violence more prevalent in Jefferson County, specifically Pine Bluff? And so we do see a decrease in juvenile homicide, which is spectacular and a great testament to the work that is being done by the team there. So a lot of the research that we see now are of GVI being implemented in larger, larger cities Chicago, boston and areas like that and so the key here is to see how effective this program is in smaller areas like Pine Bluff. The population of Pine Bluff is much smaller than, let's say, bluff. The population pine bluff is much smaller than, let's say, a Cincinnati, and so you kind of have to reconfigure some of the requirements for a smaller city. But so far it seems that the reconfiguration has been effective.

Speaker 2: 3:59

So you've got community members, you've got law enforcement community members that are we really need this violence to stop right. We've got law enforcement that are talking to youth that are participating in gun violence that here are the consequences if you shoot a gun right or if you participate in an incident that is violent. And then we have services in the community that are coming in and going okay, you know that we need to stop this in the community. You now know what the consequences of it is if you don't stop, and here is how we're going to help you stop it right. Here are the resources that we're going to provide you. Here are the resources we're going to provide your family. What is it that you need from our community to help you curb this? And so it almost feels like a wraparound service to the problem, right? So it's not just one element, it's all three elements that are going out to help these youth make better decisions.

Speaker 1: 5:06

To truly understand the impact of group violence intervention, you can't just look at crime reports. You have to hear from the people living it. Dr Tenbentzel explains how her team is capturing that full picture.

Speaker 2: 5:19

We're collecting data not just on incidents but we're also collecting survey data from youth that are in the system to understand what their perception is of gun violence. Why did they participate in gun violence? You know kind of understanding their role as they think about it right. Then we're also doing surveys with parents of those kids that are in you know the system or have gone in front of the judge to understand their perspective, and so we're hoping to kind of get a full picture of what the problem is in that community, not only official data but also survey data, that's, asking the people that are involved, even likelihoods, statistical significance, likelihoods of what are the risk factors, because if we could attack those risk factors right, then we know we have a better chance of reducing the outcome, reducing the gun violence. So we're looking at it from all different points, which is very exciting, getting that full picture. Exciting, getting that full picture. I do talk about data a lot and research, because I think it allows us to be confident in what we're saying. But research has to matter in the community and so it's exciting to be able to see the difference between a program being implemented in a bigger city and how that program can be implemented in a smaller city and be just as effective? Right, it's always got to have the community aspect. How would you pitch this to a sheriff? Right? How would you convince a mayor? You convince them with numbers and evidence, and I'm hoping that that's not just about the physical aspect of it. It's not just about stopping bullets. It's about creating a thriving community, neighborhoods where people feel safe and people feel free and they're not scared of violence in their communities, against their families, against their children. Right, and so for Arkansas.

Speaker 2: 7:42

That is really what's at stake is in these types of cities that have high gun violence, how do we achieve that? How do we reduce the gun violence? How do we make our neighborhoods safer? How do we make our citizens feel safer? The other thing gun violence does is that it erodes partnerships in the community right, so there's less trust in law enforcement to stop the violence. If there is high gun violence, which really impacts that relationship and other things, right, would you call law enforcement for help if you didn't trust them? Right? So there's a lot of different aspects to the implications of gun violence. We're also seeing that gun violence specifically impacts a lot of different other economic costs. So, thinking about emergency services, increase in emergency services, thinking about incarceration rates and prison costs, thinking about health care Right and then the loss of citizens in the community coming in and out of prisons. So it not only has a family impact, it has a society impact, but it also has an economic impact.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Whether it's in a big city or in a smaller town, the damage resulting from violence is real Trust erodes, fear grows and the future feels less certain until the cycle is broken. Dr Tim Bensel notes that because Little Rock and the surrounding cities in Palastee County are relatively small, shootings or homicides can feel more personal and visible. A single act of violence can feel like an earthquake because many people know someone who's connected to the incident.

Speaker 2: 9:31

I think when you have a bigger city, the distance right. If there's a gun crime in downtown and you live 45 minutes away, it's not as close, right. But working here at UA Little Rock, if there is a incident downtown, I'm pretty close to it, I know exactly where it is right, I could visualize it, and so I think that's a difference between smaller cities and bigger cities and so forth. So I think that's a difference between smaller cities and bigger cities and so forth. It's closer. I feel like sometimes it's pretty impactful because if you think about it, if you hear that it's happening all around you, the increase of fear right increases, the level of fear increases. I think Little Rock could benefit from it.

Speaker 2: 10:16

I think we do have areas that could improve in terms of violence, especially gun violence, so it would be worthwhile looking into.

Speaker 2: 10:27

At the end of the day, you know, this approach is going out into the community and in one voice, between community members, between law enforcement, between social service support services, you're saying in one voice that this is not okay anymore.

Speaker 2: 10:46

We are not going to tolerate violence, we're not going to tolerate gun violence, but we are here to help you. I think it would be helpful for our youth in our city. Yeah, because we're not just throwing money to the problem. We're actually being very thoughtful about how to spend our resources to get the most effective outcome, to help the most people, to target resources effectively, and that's been really exciting, and Arkansas has been doing a good job of that. The main thing that really I talk about quite a bit in terms of the efforts in Pine Bluff is the amount of passion they have for helping their youth and their communities. They've gotten a big group of stakeholders together and they spend hours and hours dedicated, on top of what they already do in their current positions, to figuring out how to help the youth and their families in the community, and I have been in awe of kind of how passionate they are and how willing they are to help their community.

Speaker 1: 12:00

If you can measure it, you can improve it. That's the philosophy driving Dr Tin Vensel's work and the reason that GVI in Jefferson County is being watched so closely. Fewer shootings, more trust, safer neighborhoods that's the goal.

Speaker 2: 12:20

I kind of think about it as a gem right On a gem. There's multifaceted sides of a problem If you think about a gem as a problem, and gun violence doesn't just impact the families. It impacts all sorts of things in our community. So that's what is at stake in the cities that have high gun violence in Arkansas.

Speaker 1: 12:39

Listen to A Shot at Hope on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, or go to smartjusticeorg.