Patrick Sharkey of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton SPIA) has been awarded a $409,000 grant from Public Welfare Foundation that will fund the creation of a research and practice network aimed at bringing together leading researchers and practitioners to break new ground in reducing gun violence in the United States.

“It’s a unique project because we’re approaching it without a specific outcome in mind,” said Sharkey, the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs. “Rather than have a precise research question we’re trying to answer, we’re trying to bring people together to build an agenda that is more useful and practical than all of us doing research on our own.”

In this new network, Sharkey will work in collaboration with David Muhammad, the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform’s (NICJR) executive director and a prominent figure in the fields of criminal justice, violence prevention, and youth development. NICJR works with government agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropic foundations to reduce incarceration and violence, improve outcomes for system-involved youth and adults, and enhance the capacity of organizations serving these populations.

“I’ve spent more and more of my time trying to make progress with empirical approaches to solving gun violence,” Sharkey said. “The more work I’ve done on it, the more I’ve seen it as the fundamental challenge of American life, particularly city life. If you can’t solve that problem, it’s hard to solve other problems.”

This project is part of Criminal Justice @ SPIA, an initiative founded in 2023 to support ongoing faculty research, incubate new projects, and foster collaborations. The network will be launched at a symposium this fall, where participants will present and engage in dialogue on key themes related to gun violence, aiming to develop both research and policy agendas.

“We recognize that there’s so much research and work being done to reduce violence in the U.S.,” Sharkey said. “The people who are focused on gun violence and the toll it takes will benefit from coming together. While there has been enormous progress in the work against violence, it’s hard to celebrate when there are still communities and families dealing with shootings in their neighborhoods.”

Since its founding in 1947, Public Welfare Foundation has awarded more than $700 million in grants. Its recent grant to Sharkey and NICJR reflects its commitment to advancing justice and opportunity for those in need, while honoring core values of racial equity, economic well-being, and fundamental fairness for all.

The grant will also support the addition of two new staff members at SPIA: Tim Ittner will join as project manager, and Mariana Bravo, a 2024 SPIA graduate, will serve as project coordinator, bolstering the team’s capacity to achieve its objectives.