Depicting "the system": How structural racism and disenfranchisement in the United States can cause dynamics in community violence among males in urban black communities.

Background: A complex system of factors interacting across time shapes community violence. It is not well understood how features of persons, institutions and communities interact as a "system" to produce escalating community violence. We aimed to integrate theoretical and experiential knowledge among young African-American urban males to develop a concept model of key causal structures driving dynamics of community violence escalation over time in a context of historical racism.

Applying Critical Race Theory to Group Model Building Methods to Address Community Violence.

Background: Group model building (GMB) is an approach to building qualitative and quantitative models with stakeholders to learn about the interrelationships among multilevel factors causing complex public health problems over time. Scant literature exists on adapting this method to address public health issues that involve racial dynamics.

Objectives: This study's objectives are to (1) introduce GMB methods, (2) present a framework for adapting GMB to enhance cultural responsiveness, and (3) describe outcomes of adapting GMB to incorporate differences in racial socialization during a community project seeking to understand key determinants of community violence transmission.