Virginia universities study shows need for community resources in historically redlined areas

Molly Manning, Capital News Service

As federal funding cuts threaten local violence prevention agencies, a recent study by two Virginia universities found formerly redlined areas in Richmond have higher rates of violent injury in adolescents.

The redlining process utilized racial bias when determining whether an area was desirable for lending and marked predominantly Black or minority areas as unsafe to give loans, or red on the maps, according to University of Richmond’s “Mapping Inequality.”

The practice was introduced with the National Housing Act, following the Great Depression. The Federal Housing Administration and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, both created by the NHA, produced security maps to indicate the “safe areas” to issue mortgages, according to The New York Times. 

The Aug. 10 study from Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia State University authors found over 85% of violence hotspots in Richmond occurred in historically low-graded or redlined neighborhoods. Violence hotspots refers to regions where violence is most likely to occur.

Adolescent homicide is the leading cause of death in Richmond, at nearly triple the national average, per the study. 

The study examined 261 adolescents, ages 10 to 24, who received care for violence-related injuries at VCU Health’s Level I trauma center over a one-year period. Of these patients, over 60% were Black and over 70% were female. Over a quarter of the patients suffered child abuse, including sexual abuse. 

The study made a methodical decision to use a majority female sample. Most studies of community violence focus narrowly on gun violence and often exclude cases of sexual assault and domestic violence because these forms of violence differ from typical street violence, according to VSU professor of psychology and study author Samuel West.

The study initially aimed to determine whether areas with the greatest risk of violence stayed the same or changed over time, according to West. It was Thomas Nixon, VSU research assistant and second author of the study, who pointed out the correlation between these patterns of violence and redlining maps. 

VCU Health associate professor Nicholas Thomson is the director of research and a forensic psychologist at the hospital’s Injury and Violence Prevention Program, which runs the intervention program Bridging the Gap. He also contributed to the study.

A multifaceted approach will help prevent violence, Thomson stated, which is why Bridging the Gap works with victims immediately after injury, and provides resources such as housing, employment, mental health care and substance use treatment to help address the cycle of trauma.

“This requires hospitals, schools, justice systems, and community programs to work in synchrony, with local and state governments providing stable funding to sustain evidence-based strategies in the neighborhoods at highest risk,” Thomson stated.

Funding cuts could leave communities in need

Communities with assets and resources have more potential to prevent youth violence. Resources can include youth programs, after-school activities, community policing and mental health services, according to Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington. She is a member of the General Assembly Advisory Committee on Sexual and Domestic Violence. 

“When you’re redlining, you’re basically artificially placing boundaries on neighborhoods based on either income or race, and you’re hampering the ability of those communities to bring more assets to the table, and that’s a problem,” Favola said. 

The committee receives and distributes federal funding through the Victims of Crime Act. This allows community agencies to help victims of sexual assault and domestic violence through trauma-informed care, job training and housing programs, according to Favola.

The senator is concerned about losing funding under the current administration’s budget cuts. 

“We had state grant dollars there in 2022, we continued many of those programs in 2024, and I don’t know what kind of resources we’re going to have with this next budget cycle and all the pending federal cuts in safety net programs,” Favola said. 

President Donald Trump has focused on cutting funds for public health, education and social welfare programs in his second term, according to PBS. 

Jonathan Yglesias is director of mission advancement for Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, which provides resources to over 70 local rape crisis centers and domestic violence agencies.

Virginia’s allocation of the Victims of Crime Act has been cut by over 50%, according to Yglesias. That money also funds resources such as hotlines, shelters, rape crisis response in hospitals and provides wraparound services. 

The federal government now prioritizes reductions and mergers, in turn removing entire parts of public health infrastructure and threatening CDC efforts for domestic violence and rape prevention, Yglesias said.

“Misogyny and sexism is inherently violent and we live in a culture in which violence against women is not only glorified but often accepted, and so when you have these historically disinvested communities this is something that is allowed to flourish,” Yglesias said.

The redlining study proved a pattern that those who work in, or research, violence prevention were already well aware of, according to Yglesias. Prevention programs for specific communities need to be informed not only by data, but directly by the community in order to best help. 

Investment in needed resources such as walkable sidewalks to schools and libraries, green spaces and community institutions could address the underlying causes of violence. 

“This reinforces a lot of what we know about social determinants of health and the root causes of violence,” Yglesias said. “Where racial injustice, economic injustice, gender injustice is allowed to thrive there are greater risk factors for violence.” 

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Communication. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.