Call for police killings, police deaths to be reported as notifiable weekly public health data
For immediate release: December 8, 2015 Boston, MA – Although no reliable official data currently exist on the number of law enforcement-related deaths each year in the U.S., counting these deaths can and should be done because the…
Exploring the increase in public mass shootings
Even though there’s a running debate as to what exactly constitutes a “mass shooting,” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s David Hemenway says that the more “public” kind of shootings—like the one on December 2, 2015 in…
Helping victims of sexual violence overcome PTSD
November 17, 2015 -- Karestan Koenen, professor of psychiatric epidemiology at Harvard Chan School, is an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychological reaction that occurs after a high-stress event and includes symptoms such as depression, anxiety,…
Physicians must play a greater role in social justice
Physicians need to step up their role in safeguarding human and civil rights because failure to do so can threaten the health and even the lives of individuals facing political persecution, social strife, racial discrimination, or other forms…
Living with guns rather than dying with guns
Even with widespread access to guns in the U.S., there are still many things that can be done to reduce gun violence, such as adding common-sense safety mechanisms to guns or—even more simply—urging gun owners to lock up…
How to cut gun deaths
Reducing the number of guns or reducing access to guns would lead to fewer gun deaths. Another way to cut gun violence would be to treat it as a public health issue and establish stricter gun regulations. So…
States with tighter gun laws have fewer armed youth on the streets
When states have strict gun laws, teens are less likely to carry guns on the streets, according to a new study by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston University researchers. The authors also found youth…
Living more safely with guns
There are ways to bring together both sides of the nation’s gun debate to address the public health threat of firearm violence in the United States, which claims an estimated 33,000 lives annually and puts the nation at…
Today’s racial violence has long roots in the past
August 3, 2015 -- A recent string of racially motivated violence in the U.S.—including the horrific shooting deaths of nine people in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina in June—is deeply connected with a violent past that…
Keeping guns out of the wrong hands
Requiring those seeking gun permits to apply in person to local police departments is likely a more effective way to prevent gun-related violence than requiring a federal background check, according to David Hemenway, professor of health policy at…