Environmental Factors Sway Violence, Drug Use, Debra Furr-Holden Tells BUSPH Audience
“Disorder breeds disorder,” read one of the slides that flashed on the screen at the Nov. 18 Public Health Forum, headlined: “Promising Environmental Approaches to Violence, Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention.”
After years of walking the streets of inner-city Baltimore with her team of researchers, the forum’s guest speaker, Debra Furr-Holden, PhD, has seen the clear links between environmental factors, such as blight, liquor stores and noise levels, and rates of violence, alcoholism and drug use.
“Opportunities for incivility exist in the community, and can be [affected] by environmental manipulations,” explained Furr-Holden, director of the Drug Investigations, Violence and Environmental Studies (DIVE) Laboratory at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was invited to speak at the monthly BUSPH forum by the Department of Community Health Sciences.
Furr-Holden described the “block-by-block” approach that has guided her research into how features of the built and social environment are linked with a community’s health. She cited several examples of how particular environmental factors can fuel rates of violence and drug use in urban settings.
In one study, Furr-Holden’s team looked at the location of liquor stores in inner-city Baltimore, mapping those that were located within 300 feet of a school, in violation of state law. The researchers also collected data on crime and drug use in those school communities, vs. others without liquor stores nearby.
The results were compelling, Furr-Holden said: Youths in elementary, middle and high schools located near liquor stores were more likely to be involved with drugs and exposed to violence than those who attended schools without liquor outlets in close proximity. Also, schools within 300 feet of a liquor store were almost 10 times more likely to have had a homicide occur near the school property, have youths who reported carrying weapons, or have higher rates of community drug use.
The findings, which showed that the lack of enforcement of the existing alcohol zoning policy was impacting youth drug and violence exposure, eventually led the Baltimore City Council to step in and propose strengthening zoning enforcement. Eight of the 51 liquor stores within 300 feet of a school have been shut down so far, and “we’re seeking to close all of them,” Furr-Holden said. In addition, a proposal is pending to expand the state zoning regulation from 300 to 750 feet.
Furr-Holden called the liquor-store study one small example of “research to policy to practice — live and in living color.”
Furr-Holden also discussed an ongoing research project that uses biomapping — including GPS units and galvanic skin response sensors – to gauge and impact behavior among participants in a drug-treatment program. Among other study areas, the project is looking at whether there are identifiable environmental factors that impact drug craving and relapse.
Another project, called “Safe Passages to School,” has eight city agencies in Baltimore working together to clean up walking paths to six city schools, so that children do not have to walk past graffiti, trash or other negative environmental elements.
Furr-Holden was a 2006 recipient of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award provides her with up to $500,000 each year, over five years, to continue her research into the links between environmental factors and youth’s exposure to drugs and violence.
To pursue the block-by-block approach, Furr-Holden’s team has developed a measurement dubbed “NIfETy” — short for Neighborhood Inventory for Environmental Typology — that looks at factors ranging from the number of alleys in an area, to the types of dwellings, to the number of broken windows.
More on “NIfeTy” is available on the DIVE Laboratory website.
Submitted by Lisa Chedekel
chedekel@bu.edu