Dean Dexter Voisin discusses his book “America the Beautiful and Violent: Black Youth and Neighborhood Trauma in Chicago.” History and context play a huge role in how violence is processed by the residents of America’s poorest, minority communities. Generations struggle to understand and process their abuse at systems that consistently undermine and under-resource them. Dean Voisin advocates for a reframing and redefinition of violence as trauma which centers empathy instead of blame. Hopeful discussion of successful interventions that disrupt these systems round out the interview.
Dexter R. Voisin is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Dean in Applied Social Sciences at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. Dean Voisin began his tenure at the Mandel School in January 2022.