ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2785-6090

Date of Award

Fall 2025

Language

English

Embargo Period

8-22-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

School of Criminal Justice

Program

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

David Hureau

Committee Members

Mary Ellen Stitt, Jason Robey, Andrew Papachristos, Bruce Western

Keywords

community violence intervention, prison reentry, social integration, qualitative methods

Subject Categories

Criminology

Abstract

Amidst ongoing efforts to reduce the nation’s prison population, as well as calls to defund the police and invest in civilianized public safety strategies following the murder of George Floyd, community-based violence intervention (CVI) strategies have been increasingly recognized as a critical means by which to ameliorate the United States’ enduring gun violence problem without exacerbating the harms of overpolicing and mass incarceration. However, most contemporary CVI research has assessed program impacts on neighborhood rates of gun violence and has produced conflicting findings, leading scholars to call for the need to examine a wider range of program-related functions and outcomes. Drawing inspiration from the reentry literature, this dissertation explores the impact of CVI on the social integration outcomes of individuals returning to society after release from incarceration. Specifically, I sought to better understand 1) how employment as a violence interventionist impacts the reintegration trajectories of workers, most of whom are formerly incarcerated, and 2) how workers provide resources and services to their clients, who are often returning from incarceration. To do so, I used two data sources: survey data collected from the city-wide population of CVI workers in Boston (N=63) as part of the Violence Intervention Worker Study (VIeWS), and semi-structured interviews with a subset of formerly incarcerated Boston workers (n=15). Regarding the first research question, I found that CVI employment serves several socially integrative functions, including fostering a sense of empowerment, promoting and/or reinforcing desistance, encouraging new and strengthened connections to individuals and institutions, reducing stigma and enabling deeper community integration, and allowing workers to actively engage in a process of accountability. However, I also found that the job has the capacity to hinder reintegration, due to low wages, regular and ongoing proximity to crime, violence, and trauma, and insufficient mental health support for workers. Regarding the second question, I found that formerly incarcerated streetworkers rely heavily on their past and present credibility, which is enhanced by a deep sense of personal responsibility, to form sustained and trusting relationships with their clients. I then found that, to provide and/or connect their clients to prosocial opportunities and resources, workers adopt one of five unique “roles,” each of which helps clients overcome barriers to service access. I conclude that CVI workers function as key actors within the reentry service field, connecting some of society’s most marginalized young people to crucial forms of support that increase the likelihood of a successful reentry. By contributing to and integrating the CVI and reentry literatures to establish CVI as a case study of “reintegration in action,” this dissertation has offered a lens by which to see the field in a new way that enables a deeper understanding of the processes underlying post-incarceration social integration. Moving forward, I suggest that reentry scholars regard CVI as a form of restorative reentry and take seriously its position within the reentry service field, and that those studying CVI consider it just as much a project of social integration as it is a program of violence reduction.

License

This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

Download

Included in

Criminology Commons

Share

COinS