‘It’s an emotional journey’ – 12 young people from Philadelphia’s toughest neighborhoods explain how violence disrupts their physical and mental health

In 2023 410 people were murdered in Philadelphia – greater than 1 / 4 of them were lower than 25 years old. In addition to those that died, countless others lost family members and people they relied on.

How social researcher which examines various types of violence and their impact on human health, I do know that the violence experienced by young people in Philadelphia, it’s greater than shootings, killings and physical injuries. Social science recognizes many differing kinds of violence beyond physical violence – for instance, poverty, racism, and other kinds of violence negative interactions with the police.

Moreover, violence can take a toll on health, even when the person is just not aware of it. For example, I once interviewed a young man in West Philadelphia and monitored his heart rate. When there was a shooting outside his front room window, his heart rate suddenly increased from 51 beats per minute to 116. He heard the gunshot, but it surely didn’t upset him. He felt like he had hardened himself against the violence that had happened in front of his door, and he was shocked to learn that his body had reacted so strongly.

To higher understand the connection between types of violence and their effects, I conducted an ethnographic study on 12 young people aged 16 to 21 who lived in various Philadelphia neighborhoods where violence is common. These include Kensington, Northeast, Germantown, Cobbs Creek and Belmont. The study ran from 2016 to 2018 and was recently published in a peer-reviewed journal Journal of Youth Research. The names utilized in this text are pseudonyms intended to guard the identities of the young people who contributed to my research.

I spent a month with each young person. I walked them through neighborhoods, interviewed them about their family histories, and took their heart rates as they went about their every day activities. For 4 days, they wore health monitors on their wrists and a separate GPS tracker. At the tip of every day, I sat with them and checked their heart rate data and where they were.

I learned that where a young person lives, the social messages they receive and the assorted types of violence they experience can profoundly impact their physical and mental health.

“No shade, no trees, no big parks”

The young people I worked with perceived the shortage of investment in their neighborhoods as a signal that those in power didn’t care about them, their families and communities. They talked about closure of public schools, limited access to libraries and lack of trees and green areas. Walking with me through the Cobbs Creek neighborhood, 21-12 months-old Desmond said, “Who would need to live here? There is not any shade, no trees, no large parks.

They also saw how gentrification – the means of displacement by wealthier people and investments of local entrepreneurs and residents – changes their neighborhoods. Kalia, who lived in “little Puerto Rico,” as she called her Kensington neighborhood, told me what she thought of wealthier people moving there.

“Remember how I said we were loud and we were all close to each other and we were all just hanging out and stuff? And they are not like that. They’re quiet and have all the money, you know? she said. “So I feel like they’re not just trying to change the neighborhood, they’re just trying to change the way people live.”

“I can’t blame them though.”

While working with the five young black men on this study, I learned how their every day interactions with the police impacted their self-esteem. They shared experiences of police slamming them against partitions, knocking food out of their hands, refusing to imagine they’d no criminal record, or chasing them out of parks.

In sharing these interactions, it was clear that several of the young men had internalized false messages from society and culture that black men commit more crimes and behave more aggressively than white men. Kareem from West Philadelphia summed up his thoughts on the matter this manner: “If you were a criminal, they probably treated you a certain way. But because almost every Black person interferes in almost every little thing, they think we’re all criminals. But I can not blame them.”

Future, of Southwest Philadelphia, had a very tense interaction with police and felt, he said, “excited” during his job interview. When police approached him, his heart rate increased from 60 to 106 beats per minute, then inside 10 minutes increased to 130 beats per minute. It remained at an elevated level for half-hour.

Future told me that on his option to our interview, he stopped to spend the remaining of his money on a breakfast sandwich and coffee. Shortly thereafter, a policeman knocked the sandwich out of his hand, pushed him against a wall and handcuffed him. “They thought I had drugs, weed and pills on me, and I said, ‘I don’t have anything,’” he said. They asked him for his ID card, to which he replied: “Why did you handcuff me?” Then they threatened to take him to the police station.

“Listen, I’m obedient,” Future told officers, explaining that he was on probation. He said that after the police “threw” him into the back of the automobile, a neighbor began filming your entire incident and asked the police what they were doing. Future said the junior officer reached for his gun while his partner “tried to get me to go for my hood.”

The purpose of the police meeting gave the impression to be to acquire details about what was happening in the realm. The young men I talked to said they often had similar experiences.

“It’s a thrill ride.”

Whether it was through experiences of police brutality, the kid welfare system, homelessness, or past trauma, each of the young people I actually have worked with has struggled with the results of interpersonal conflict, structural AND symbolic violence on other ways. Sometimes this showed up in their mental health, manifesting as eating disorders, severe anxiety or bouts of depression.

Conner, a young black man living in Belmont, experienced severe anxiety that at times kept him from leaving his home. His heart rate rose rapidly on public transport, sometimes reaching 150 beats per minute, because he was fearful that arguments within the neighborhood would spill over to the bus. He went to the gym late at night to avoid fights and talked in regards to the friends he had lost to gun violence. Of how he felt about these losses, he said, “It’s an emotional ride, but most of us people of color are used to things like this.”

For others, their physical health also suffered. For example, one young woman experienced severe violence in her home as a toddler and was involved within the child welfare system as a toddler and as a mother. She struggled with hypertension, severe headaches, obesity and anxiety. She lamented that getting care was beyond her reach, especially for her mental health. Every time she began contacting a therapist, she was told that either the middle would close or the therapist would go away.

Research clearly shows this childhood trauma results in higher rates of early morbidity and health conditions resembling heart problems. What was striking, nonetheless, was that these symptoms appeared in people still in their teens.

Holistic interventions

Society typically tries to scale back violence by correcting individual behavior – for instance, using metal detectors to scale back gun use or creating mentoring programs for people deemed vulnerable to violence.

I imagine a more holistic approach would go further. Libraries, parks and community centers promote education, physical activity and social cohesion for youngsters from high-poverty neighborhoods. Giving people jobs that pay a living wage helps them maintain an honest quality of life and increase your value. Investing in high-quality mental health services in neighborhoods that lack them may also help young people the skilled support they need process their surroundings and what is going on around them.

In short, recognizing that violence is available in many forms and requires many levels of intervention could make a difference.