Identifying root causes to Cincinnati gun violence
Common Good AI Case Study
Common Good AI’s vision is to foster inclusive civic engagement by transforming how communities find common ground and solve problems together. We are actively piloting the use of digital tools to inform our community engagement approach. Before starting Common Good AI, the CrowdSmart technology was used by a Cincinnati community to understand gun violence. As we learn and grow as an organization, we return to early collaborations to identify success factors and continue to improve our processes. This early case study is not a rigorous academic study, rather documentation of lessons learned based on key informant interviews.
The Background
Dr. Victor Garcia was increasingly troubled by the number of youth he treated for gunshot wounds, particularly young black men. As a trauma surgeon based at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, he saw the tragic yet avoidable impact that gun violence had on young people. While the overall rate of violent crime in the United States dropped dramatically since the 1990s (Pew Research, 2024), gun violence remains the leading cause of death for 1-17 year olds for the third year running, especially for black youth (Johns Hopkins, 2024). Dr. Garcia wanted to do more than just treat people injured from gun violence, and he set out to investigate the root causes. In 2023, he convened victims of gun violence, people entering and exiting the criminal justice system, parole and probation officers, healthcare workers, and other stakeholders to discuss, identify, and evaluate the systemic root causes of gun violence in Cincinnati’s communities.
The Process
Dr. Garcia’s initial questions included, “How do we get those who are victims and those who are perpetrators to come together? How do we get those who are in power and those who are powerless…to have conversations that could actually matter?” He wanted to connect people from every side of the gun violence problem so that all the participants gained a deeper understanding of the root causes, what were the best leverage points in the ‘systems’ and how to address them.
He initiated the engagement with an in-person focus group of 14 people. The engagement convened youth, parents, parole officers, and social workers to talk about gun violence. He transitioned to an online collaboration using CrowdSmart.ai due to concerns about participant privacy and the platforms' ability to work to mask identities. What impressed him is the anonymity of the technology so that every voice carried equal significance. When asked about the advantage of using digital tools versus a traditional focus group; Dr. Garcia highlighted the AI’s ability to “exponentially accelerate that sense of community that you have with a gathering with people.” Since all ideas are given equal weight, the platform helped to cancel out the implicit power dynamics that exist between perpetrators of violence, victims, and representatives of the criminal justice system. The online engagement allowed participants to be more open to ideas then may not have initially considered. The tool was used virtually and asynchronously, which meant that more users could participate and more often, rather than navigating in person scheduling, and sharing of ideas could happen in a matter of minutes.
The Results
Throughout the in-person and online engagement, Dr. Garcia was impressed with the openness of victims, perpetrators, and their families to discuss violence in the neighborhoods and its root causes. The engagement challenged the persistent but inaccurate belief that “locking up” all the offenders will put a stop to the shootings, and identified more sustainable solutions.
In the online collaboration, 100% of participants agreed with the statement, “I fully believe that until we solve child poverty, we will not be able to fully solve gun violence;” it was ranked as the most important idea within the engagement. The lived experience of the participants aligns with the research that states that socio-economic factors have a significant role to play in gun violence (CEPR, 2022), yet policies are not sufficiently focused on addressing these root causes. When asked about how the platform helped bring participants to agreement around root causes, Dr. Garcia said, “this changed their minds… the term that comes to mind is empathy.” By connecting stakeholders from both sides of the criminal justice system, Dr. Garcia was able to build a sense of empathy and improved understanding between victims, perpetrators, and officers.
What we learned
The Cincinnati gun violence engagement informs our thinking about how to best deploy the digital platform to engage and create alignment in a community setting on sensitive topics, like gun violence. At Common Good AI, we understand that technology will not single-handedly solve a systemic issue in our communities, but it does offer a way to convene individuals and identify ways to promote social change.
Moving forward, Common Good AI will continue working with Dr. Garcia to explore opportunities for future online engagements with diverse stakeholders on gun violence, including local nonprofit organizations to inform their programmatic actions and fundraising within the Cincinnati communities.
Through this engagement, we learned:
Closing the empathy gap: Deliberative tech tools can help accelerate consensus building and build empathy between really diverse groups.
One piece of the puzzle: Tech tools are not a golden ticket. Designing an online collaboration requires asking the right questions and engaging with the right people; this is as important as the tool.
Be careful of reductionism: Complicated problems rarely have easy and simple solutions, and solving them requires deep engagement and action.
