Framing Analysis
Frames are mental structures that help people understand the world,
based on particular cues from outside themselves that activate assumptions
and values they hold within themselves. The question Prevention
Institute asked BMSG to investigate is: what is known about how
people frame issues related to youth violence? And how can that knowledge
help advocates do a better job explaining the value of prevention?
To answer the questions,
BMSG collected, summarized and synthesized the work that has
been done to date on framing youth and violence. The starting point
for this work is BMSG's paper with the Justice
Policy Institute, "Off
Balance: Youth, Race & Crime in the News", prepared for Building
Blocks for Youth. Key issues the paper explores are: how youth and violence have been portrayed in the
news: how the issue of race complicates depictions about youth and violence;
and how public attitudes about government can inhibit public support
for violence prevention.[download pdf][download appendix pdf]
The paper will inform Prevention Institute's work with Urban Network
to Increase Thriving Youth Trough Violence Prevention, known as UNITY. UNITY is
a national initiative designed to strengthen and support cities in
preventing violence before it occurs and to help sustain those efforts. UNITY's National
Consortium includes city representitives, local and state health
departments, school districts, elected officials, community-based
organizations, and law enforcement, as well as foundations, universities,
state coalitions, and national organizations. UNITY is supported
by a cooperative agreement from the Center of Diease Control and
Prevention to Prevention
Institute and funded in part by a grant from The California
Wellness Foundation.
