Two years after violence intervention program launches in Fresno, gun-related crimes are cut by nearly half
- By Elinor Simek
- 2 min. read ▪ Published
Gun violence is now the number one cause of death for children and teenagers under age 19. Advance Peace, an organization that grew out of the successful Office of Neighborhood Safety in Richmond, California in 2018 and has since branched into other cities in California and around the country, works to reverse that trend.
A new analysis co-led by Jason Corburn and Mahasin Mujahid of UC Berkeley School of Public Health and Xing Gao of UC Merced, shows that Advance Peace has had a significant impact reducing gun violence in the city of Fresno, California.
In a paper published in PLOS ONE online, Corburn and colleagues found that in June 2023—two years after the program first launched in Fresno—there was a 46% decrease in the rate of both firearm homicides and injury shootings.
The researchers relied on firearm crime data from the Fresno Police Department. Corburn said that he was not aware of other interventions that have worked this well to curb gun-related crime in Fresno.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, who is also the former police chief, told a local news broadcast, “Advance Peace intervention specialists have done some great work out there. I know for a fact they’ve stopped shootings. I know that for a fact.”
The researchers noted several study limitations, among them the possibility that other factors might have influenced the reduction in firearm crimes. Some additional factors may have neighborhood sociodemographic changes, firearm availability and regulation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and sociopolitical issues.
An earlier study of Advance Peace in Richmond, California conducted by researchers at UC Berkeley and UCSF found that the initiative resulted in a 55% reduction in firearm homicides over six years.
Advance Peace Fresno is supported by the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission, the US Department of Justice, and the California Violence and Intervention Prevention program (CALVIP), which requires evaluation of the program itself and its gun violence outcomes. Corburn is director of UCBPH’s Center for Global Healthy Cities, and is principal investigator on a grant evaluating the Advance Peace intervention in four cities, funded by Arnold Ventures.
