In this volume, authors draw from theoretical and methodological frameworks in the health, social and behavioral sciences to illustrate how poor outcomes among individuals and communities can be linked to the interplay of multiple factors operating at various levels.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

In this volume, authors draw from theoretical and methodological frameworks in the health, social and behavioral sciences to illustrate how poor outcomes among individuals and communities can be linked to the interplay of multiple factors operating at various levels.

Early twentieth-century African American men in northern urban centers like New York faced economic isolation, segregation, a biased criminal justice system, and overt racial attacks by police and citizens. In this book, Douglas J. Flowe interrogates the meaning of crime and violence in the lives of these men, whose lawful conduct itself was often surveilled and criminalized, by focusing on what their actions and behaviors represented to them. He narrates the stories of men who sought profits in underground markets, protected themselves when law enforcement failed to do so, and exerted control over public, commercial, and domestic spaces through force in a city that denied their claims to citizenship and manhood. Flowe furthermore traces how the features of urban Jim Crow and the efforts of civic and progressive leaders to restrict their autonomy ultimately produced the circumstances under which illegality became a form of resistance. Drawing from voluminous prison and arrest records, trial transcripts, personal letters and documents, and investigative reports, Flowe opens up new ways of understanding the black struggle for freedom in the twentieth century. By uncovering the relationship between the fight for civil rights, black constructions of masculinity, and lawlessness, he offers a stirring account of how working-class black men employed extralegal methods to address racial injustice.

Relying on a multidisciplinary framework of inquiry and critical perspective, this edited volume addresses the unique experiences of Black males within various stages of contact in the criminal justice system. It provides a comprehensive overview of the administration of justice, mental and physical health issues faced by Black males, and reintegration into society after system involvement. Recent events—including but by no means limited to the shootings of unarmed Black men by police in Ferguson, Missouri; Baltimore; Minneapolis; and Chicago—have highlighted the disproportionate likelihood of young Black males to encounter the criminal justice system. Black Males and the Criminal Justice System provides a theoretical and empirical review of the need for an intersectional understanding of Black male experiences and outcomes within the criminal justice system. The intersectional approach, which posits that outcomes of societal experiences are determined by the way the interconnected identities of individuals are perceived and responded to by others, is key to recognizing the various forms of oppression that Black males experience, and the impact these experiences have on them and their families. This book is intended for students and scholars in criminology, criminal justice, sociology, race/ethnic studies, legal studies, psychology, and African American Studies, and will serve as a reference for researchers who wish to utilize a progressive theoretical approach to study social control, policing, and the criminal justice system.

Like so many big cities in the United States, Philadelphia has suffered from a strikingly high murder rate over the past fifty years. Such tragic loss of life, as Eric C. Schneider demonstrates, does not occur randomly throughout the city; rather, murders have been racialized and spatialized, concentrated in the low-income African American populations living within particular neighborhoods. In The Ecology of Homicide, Schneider tracks the history of murder in Philadelphia during a critical period from World War II until the early 1980s, focusing on the years leading up to and immediately following the 1966 Miranda Supreme Court decision and the shift to easier gun access and the resulting spike in violence that followed. Examining the transcripts of nearly two hundred murder trials, The Ecology of Homicide presents the voices of victims and perpetrators of crime, as well as the enforcers of the law—using, to an unprecedented degree, the words of the people who were actually involved. In Schneider's hands, their perspectives produce an intimate record of what was happening on the streets of Philadelphia in the decades from 1940 until 1980, describing how race factored into everyday life, how corrosive crime was to the larger community, how the law intersected with every action of everyone involved, and, most critically, how individuals saw themselves and others. Schneider traces the ways in which low-income African American neighborhoods became ever more dangerous for those who lived there as the combined effects of concentrated poverty, economic disinvestment, and misguided policy accumulated to sustain and deepen what he calls an "ecology of violence," bound in place over time. Covering topics including gender, urban redevelopment, community involvement, children, and gangs, as well as the impact of violence perpetrated by and against police, The Ecology of Homicide is a powerful link between urban history and the contemporary city.

This book highlights novel and pragmatic health promotion efforts being adopted with boys and young men of colour (BYMOC) globally that apply a strengths-based approach. Men's adoption of risky health practices and reluctance to seek help and engage in preventive health behaviours have frequently been used to explain their poorer health outcomes, particularly among adolescent boys and young men, and disproportionately affecting BYMOC. Emerging literature on equity and men's health has conveyed that intersections among age, race, sexuality, socioeconomic status and geography contribute to a complex array of health and social inequities. There is growing evidence to suggest these inequities shape the health practices of BYMOC. Unfortunately, these health and social inequities can have negative lifelong consequences. An increased focus on reducing health inequities has led to a greater focus on health promotion actions that address social and cultural determinants of health. The vulnerabilities that BYMOC face are diverse and are reflected in a range of tailored health promotion interventions. Health promotion approaches that influence structural and systemic inequities experienced by BYMOC have been a prominent feature. In this volume, the editors and contributors purposefully bring together international research and promising practice examples from Australia, the United States, New Zealand, and Canada to celebrate health promotion strategies that help to improve the health and social trajectories of BYMOC. In doing so, the book moves beyond discussing the health inequities faced by this population, to talk about the practical actions to address them in context. Health Promotion with Adolescent Boys and Young Men of Colour brings together diffuse strands of scholarship relating to male health promotion, gender/masculinities and health, equity and men's health, and gender and youth development. The book is a unique and useful resource for practitioners, policy-makers, researchers and students with an interest in health promotion/public health, social work/social policy, education, men's health, youth development, Indigenous studies, and health and social equity.

"How will I raise my son to be different? This question gripped Washington Post investigative reporter Emma Brown, who was at home nursing her six-week-old son when the #MeToo movement erupted. In search of an answer, Brown traveled around the country, through towns urban and rural, affluent and distressed. In the course of her reporting, she interviewed hundreds of people--educators, parents, coaches, researchers, men, and boys--to understand the challenges boys face and how to address them. What Brown uncovered was shocking: 23% of boys believe men should use violence to get respect; 22% of an incoming college freshman class said they had already committed sexual violence; 58% of young adults said they've never had a conversation with their parents about respect and care in sexual relationships. Men are 4 times more likely than women to die by suicide. Nearly 4 million men experience sexual violence each year. Emma Brown connects the dots between educators, researchers, policy makers and mental health professionals in this tour de force that upends everything we thought we knew about boys"--adapted from back cover.

This book argues that a theory of crime specific to the African American experience is justified by qualitative and quantitative data, not just because of the disproportionately higher percentage of African Americans (in the U.S. population) who are offenders, but also because of the vastly higher percentage of Black Americans who are non-offenders.

This volume comprehensively addresses racial trauma from a clinical lens, equipping mental health professionals across all disciplines to be culturally responsive when serving Black men. Written using a transdisciplinary approach, Yamonte Cooper presents a Unified Theory of Racism (UTR), Integrated Model of Racial Trauma (IMRT), Transgenerational Trauma Points (TTP), Plantation Politics, Black Male Negation (BMN), and Race-Based Shame (RBS) to fill a critical and urgent void in the mental health field and emerging scholarship on racial trauma. Chapters begin with specific definitions of racism before exploring specific challenges that Black men face, such as racial discrimination and health, trauma, criminalization, economic deprivation, anti-Black misandry, and culturally-specific stressors, emotions, such as shame and anger, and coping mechanisms that these men utilize. After articulating the racial trauma of Black men in a comprehensive manner, the book provides insight into what responsive care looks like as well as clinical interventions that can inform treatment approaches. This book is invaluable reading for all established and training mental health clinicians that work with Black men, such as psychologists, marriage and family therapists, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists.