Dr. Daniel Semenza, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, and the Department of Urban-Global Health in the School of Public Health at Rutgers University. He is also the Director of Interpersonal Violence Research at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.
The New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center approaches this field of work with a multi-disciplinary research focus, aiming to establish the root causes of gun violence, to help prevent future instances of violence, and translate their research into policies and programs that can be adopted at the local, state, and national levels of government. Their center has three main goals, research, training, and outreach/translation. Through these goals, the center aims to better understand the nature of gun violence, studying not only the victims that are directly impacted by gun violence, but also how those instances of violence impact the larger community. They highlight the consequences of gun violence on an individual level, community level, and a societal level, exploring the prevention and treatment of gun violence. They also research the usefulness of existing laws and policies, and help promote the safe, responsible use of guns.
During the seminar, Dr. Semenza discussed the different levels of violence exposure, from direct exposure (as the victim of gun violence) to secondary exposure (as family, friends, or peers of victims of gun violence), to community exposure (which includes witnesses, and those who hear/live near the sites of the gun violence incidents). He also explored the impact gun violence exposure (GVE) has on an individual’s health, paying particular attention to how stress exacerbates these health outcomes. Finally, Dr. Semenza presented three research projects that his center is working on, to better understand GVE and its impacts on health and wellness.
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