John Rich (2009) Wrong Place, Wrong Time: Trauma and Violence in the Lives of Young Black Men, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 

OVERVIEW 

The express purpose of this book is to provide a human face to the discussion of youth violence. The author, John Rich, was a primary-care doctor at Boston City Hospital who repeatedly saw young black men brought into the emergency room with gunshot wounds. If you follow the local Boston news, whenever a shooting is reported in the papers it is invariably mentioned that the victim was taken to Boston City Hospital. Rich was unnerved, first of all by the steady flow of shooting victims to his workplace, and secondly, by the reactions of his coworkers to these victims. The more cynical of them insisted that all of these young men were gangsters, though of course they would claim to be innocent victims as soon as they enter the hospital. No one ever just "gets shot", it was said: these kids got themselves shot. The more charitable observers allowed some youth are probably victims while some are serious criminals, but maintained no mental model for anything in between these extremes. Rich decided to start interviewing as many young shooting victims as he could, in the hopes of finding a reality to fill in the gap in his coworkers' viewpoints.

Kari 

Kari, age 18, was shot when a kid in his neighborhood tried to rob him of a gold chain. The mugger was on a bicycle when he made his demand; Kari pushed him down and ran. He was shot in the back as he ran, and once he had fallen down the thief walked up to him and removed his chain, but did not kill him. The police arrived and told him, "Don't do nothing stupid, like die," and told everyone else not to touch him. Kari said that the shooting was a wake-up call to him, as he had a son and he was worried that he might not be around for him. In the past he had spent little time with his son, and he realized how it affected him that his own father never spent much time with him. Kari cooperated with the police and the shooter was caught—the shooter had previously been arrested for armed robbery, but was allowed out on bail in order to take care of his disabled mother—and Kari took a lot of criticism in his neighborhood for not handling the situation on his own. He says he partly blames himself for what happened, as he should've just given the man the chain—now, he doesn't even wear any jewelry anymore. Kari is hoping to find work in the music industry; he graduated from high school but says he has no desire to go to college, as he doesn't think he would be able to handle the stress.

David 

David was shot when he his cousin Antoine were mistaken for someone else. David received only minor injuries, but his cousin, who was his best friend, was killed. Now he finds he has very little capacity for emotion anymore; that he can relate to his friends, family and his girlfriend on an intellectual level, but has trouble feeling anything for them. He is extremely angry at the people who shot him, but he has no intentions of pursuing them: he knows what sort of people they are, and hopes they will get what they deserve soon enough. Still, he asks why they weren't more careful when looking for their targets, why they didn't make sure they shot the right people. He says he's convinced they didn't care; they just wanted to kill somebody.

Baron 

Baron received four stab wounds in a knife fight. He has the opposite problem from David: he is so full of emotions he can't sleep, so he smokes marijuana in order to make his nightmares go away. 

Mark

Mark was shot after getting into a fight during a basketball game. He was alone, and as the fight escalated, he was attacked by several people at once. He was released from the hospital with his leg in a cast and no real means of support; he lives alone in a dilapidated apartment with a broken front door, with no income, subsisting off of meals that his father brings once a day. He feels extremely unsafe in his vulnerable position—once, his car windows were smashed and he was in too poor a condition to leave the apartment. He has no means of taking care of his two sons. Mark says he's been borderline-homeless since he was fifteen, so he's used to taking care of himself. He admits he used to sell drugs and carry a gun, but he left all of that behind long ago. He only did it in the first place to earn a living until he could find a job. 

Roy 

Roy was an A-student in grade school and went to high school at Lincoln-Sudbury through the Metco program. His parents began having children as teenagers and taught all their kids how to fight. Even though Roy was small, he had no qualms about carrying a brick for self-defense, and putting it to use. He believes there’s no fair way to physically harm another person, so there’s no such thing as a fair fight. Roy's real trouble began when some old friends of his robbed his uncle. Roy demanded they return the stolen goods. When they did not, he went over to their house, "and by the time the night was over, nine people were shot."

He was arrested but expected his victims would not cooperate with the police: "because these were tough guys, not cowards." Instead, his victims pressed charges under assumed names. Even though Roy thought he could probably beat such a dubious trial, he decided to plead guilty and received three to five years, in order to avoid the risk of a much longer sentence. He was not too concerned about being in jail, given it kept him out of the dangers of being at home. Roy's favorite drink was Heineken on ice. He had strong opinions and would argue passionately whenever he got a chance.

In pre-release Roy worked with a local non-profit, who recognized his intelligence and managed to find him an internship in Senator John Kerry's office. Even so, his past continued to haunt him. He was offered a full-time job in the Senator's office, but instead of taking it he vanished. 

Author Dr. John Rich eventually learned Roy had left in order to clean up the lose ends of his previous life; some of his old enemies were looking for him again. A year later Roy resurfaced, saying he had solved the situation and had done so without violence and without breaking the law. For several years he worked as an underling in the Senator's office, after which he took a job with the Health Commission, counseling young men who had recently been released from the hospital for violent injuries. 

Even so, Roy’s troubles weren't over. After his long-term girlfriend left him, with whom he had three kids, Roy went on a tour of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country, from L.A. to Chicago to New York to D.C., caring little whether he put himself in danger. He told of walking into a public place, wearing neutral colors, pulling out a joint, and when the local gangsters asked him who he was and what he was doing there, replying that he was from Boston and had heard so much about the neighborhood he wanted to see it for himself.

Jimmy

Jimmy was a short, heavy-set 17-year-old with a nasal voice. He was shot by a former associate from his gang; his theory is that an enemy of his had paid the fellow to shoot him. Jimmy says his family watches out for each other; if one of them gets shot then the whole family will come after the shooter. He argues that among his generation, youth engage in violence because they want to make a reputation for themselves, to be known, to be somebody, and the only way to do that is to be successfully violent. He says it's possible to make a reputation doing "good" things, like getting good grades at school, but getting a reputation for being bad has the added benefit that people are scared of you and won't mess with you. Kids want to be somebody, and reputations don't come for free: they have to be earned. It used to be only older kids had this mentality, he said, but now everyone is concerned about being perceived as weak. When asked how he thought such violence could end, Jimmy gave it some serious thought and replied… it probably won't end. Everyone has some friend or relative who's been shot or killed, and they're going to seek revenge until eventually there's no one left on the streets. When asked about his own safety, Jimmy replied he wasn't afraid to die, as he had already been shot. He believes in God, and admits he’s not on very good terms with Him right now. He hopes someday to be so, but has no idea when that might be. 

  Roy’s Explanation

Rich found Jimmy's rationale to be oddly coherent. He wasn't sure what to make of it, so he asked Roy about it. Roy replied that kids in poor neighborhoods are used to being treated like they don't exist. They don't know anyone with jobs or legitimate potential in life, so they feel like society ignores them. A person in such a situation would be desperate for any way to get noticed, and violence is an obvious solution: even if the world is smarter and richer and more successful, the violent person is stronger than such people, more dangerous than they. 

Roy then asked what Jimmy looked like, under the assumption that only someone without any other talents would resort to gang violence: he was probably not tall enough to be a good basketball player, probably not handsome enough to attract girls, and probably not smart enough to succeed in school. Roy said if a kid can't be famous, he'll settle for being infamous; at least that way he's known and isn't a nobody. He said Jimmy's pursuit of violence was just like Rich's pursuit of the medical profession: Rich wanted to be the best doctor he could be, Roy said, to impress his coworkers, to make a name for himself and feel good about himself. Similarly, Jimmy was trying to make a name for himself through violence. Roy asked Rich, "What would you be if you weren't a doctor? Think about yourself right now, could you see yourself being satisfied with your existence if you flipped burgers for a living?"

Conclusion 

 For the most part, these stories are presented as transcripts of Rich's dialogues with each youth. There is very little commentary: Rich gives his own emotional reactions to each story as he tells it, and offers a short narrative of how he found each interview, but other than that the stories are left to stand on their own. He is a capable observer; he has the advantage of being a primary care doctor; he's used to asking people personal questions and expecting them to answer confidentially. The result in this book is a better grass-roots description and explanation of urban youth violence than most people, even some in leadership, ministry or policy positions really have. 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION 

1. Do you think most victims of urban youth violence are themselves involved in violence? How would you characterize the spectrum of innocence among victims? Are most of them towards the innocent end, or most about as guilty as their assailants? How should this affect our judicial policy? 

2. How do you think most people form opinions on youth violence—what influences them to take a cynical view or a charitable view, a simplistic view or a nuanced view? What sorts of people tend to form each class of opinion? 

 IMPLICATIONS 

  1. Our understanding of an issue as culturally volatile as the culpability of the victims of youth violence must be more nuanced than simply “innocent” or “guilty”.

2. Violence affects society at every level; it’s very difficult to separate people into “innocent” and “guilty” camps. Everyone from the hardened criminal to the youth worker has a positive and negative influences on the system, and all stand to benefit from peace. 

Peter Bass,   cCYS