A year after Syracuse’s homicide rate dropped to its lowest in five years, the number of homicides in the city slightly increased in 2018.

Twenty-four homicides were reported in Syracuse in 2018, Syracuse Police Department Sgt. Matthew Malinowski said in an email. There were 21 homicides reported in 2017, the lowest number in five years.

Sandra Lane, a professor of public health and anthropology at Syracuse University, said a large factor behind Syracuse’s high homicide rate is its high poverty rate.

Syracuse “is the ninth most racially segregated metropolitan area in the country,” according to a 2014 report by CNY Fair Housing, a nonprofit working to end housing discrimination.

Lane said the most number of homicides occur in impoverished and racially segregated areas in Syracuse.

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A number of historical factors contribute to Syracuse’s hyper-segregation, said Robert Rubinstein, a professor of anthropology and international relations at SU. He said that city policies enacted decades ago put communities of color at structural disadvantages.

The construction of Interstate 81 and the destruction of the 15th Ward, a historically African American neighborhood, concentrated poverty in starkly defined neighborhoods of color, he said.

Rubinstein said The Rockefeller Drug Laws, a series of statutes enacted in 1973 that enforced harsh punishments for drug possession, were also a key factor in the increased number of homicides in neighborhoods of color.

The laws disproportionately affected black community members, who were incarcerated at much higher rates than white Syracuse residents, Rubinstein said. Upon their release, their criminal record became “a barrier to their reintegration in the city,” making it difficult for many African Americans to vote or find housing or employment, Rubinstein said.

These historical factors are directly responsible for the city’s current homicide rates, said Mindy Thompson Fullilove, a professor of urban policy and health at The New School at the Parsons School of Design.

“This combination of factors has undermined the social and economic strengths of neighborhoods that keep the peace,” she said. “It’s in that context that you see explosions of violence.”

Rubinstein said residents of these neighborhoods feel as though they’ve been abandoned by the city and turn to violence as a way to give them a feeling of control.

“Their group has to take care of itself because the city has not been a reliable source of protection and support and provision of services,” Rubinstein said.

Poor quality education in neighborhoods of color has resulted in more teens and young adults becoming involved in violent activities, said Timothy Jennings-Bey, the trauma response director at United Way of Central New York.

Ten people aged 19 or younger were killed in 2018 — Syracuse’s highest homicide rate among youths in 25 years, Syracuse.com reported.

Jennings-Bey said individuals can develop “street addiction,” a theory he developed that suggests young people from violent neighborhoods are pushed toward becoming involved in violent activity.

To work toward reducing violence, trauma among adolescents must be addressed, Lane said. Many teens in neighborhoods of color personally know someone who was a homicide victim, she said.

She said teens who live in those neighborhoods often don’t receive the counseling or grief support they need to manage their trauma.

“Living in neighborhoods in Syracuse affected by gun violence is for many people, in terms of mental health, like living in a war zone,” Lane said.

Published on February 3, 2019 at 9:20 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu