Reflections On Leadership Recognition — The California Peace Prize

By Julio Marcial

Background

By the early 1990s, violence in California had reached epidemic levels. This was especially true for youth, with gun violence being the leading cause of death among the state’s young people. In 1991, a total of 1,632 youth (ages 12-24) were killed by gun violence in California, according to the state health department’s own statistical data.

As recently as a decade ago, experts quoted in “Body Count: Moral Poverty…and How To Win America’s War Against Crime and Drugs” (Simon & Schuster, 1996), warned of “tens of thousands of morally impoverished juvenile super-predators” poised to “murder, rape, rob, assault, deal deadly drugs and get high.” National magazines and newspapers raised the specter of a growing population of predatory juveniles and young adults sparking this wave of violence.

Fortunately, we can now say that those predictions were wrong. In fact, by the end of the 1990s, nearly all categories of crimes in California fell to levels not seen since the 1960s. From 1991 to 2003, the number of young people killed by gun violence in California decreased by 41 percent.

The causes of violence, like those of many health and social problems that face cities across the nation, are complex. It stands to reason, therefore that several factors may have contributed to this sharp and unexpected decline in violent crimes.

Some observers credit the “Three Strikes” law, which put more repeat offenders behind bars. Other commentators point to the presence of more police on the streets, a reduction in the number of guns in circulation, gang truces and more effective after-school and prevention programs.

The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) believes that a strong contributing factor was the collective achievements of committed individuals working on the front lines to prevent violence in cities all across California. This issue of Reflections describes the Foundation’s approach to leadership recognition — we use strategic communications to illuminate the work of exemplary individuals who have made extraordinary community-based achievements as a means to inspire new leaders and advance positive health policy change.

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