This open access book represents a multiyear exploration into identity-based mass violence (IBMV) within urban contexts. It explores the complexities of structural and acute violence in cities, drawing on local solutions rooted in the fields of urban violence prevention, atrocity prevention, and peacebuilding. The authors present a multidimensional approach that addresses sexual and gender-based violence, racial and ethnic violence, gang or group-based violence, state-perpetrated violence, political violence, violence against migrants, and others. The volume investigates the outsized influence of power in shaping how violence is understood and how prevention outcomes are evaluated. The chapters span scholarship, practical guidance, and lived experience of enduring and bearing witness to IBMV. This volume speaks directly to reform-minded partners and allies in policy and practice, as well as to funders and supporters. It provides a practical foundation for collaborative, prevention-focused action and policy opportunities.
Chapter 1: Identity Based Mass Violence and Cities An Introduction.-
Chapter 2: My Homeland Is Not for Sale On the Destruction of Cities.
Chapter
3: Paper City and Papers Cities Lambe Lambe and Young People.
Chapter 4:
Using Evidence and Data to Monitor Identity Based Mass Violence.
Chapter 5:
What Dwells in Casa de Luz.
Chapter 6: Understanding Structural Acute and
Mass Identity Based Violence in Cities as Process.
Chapter 7: Urban Patterns
of Segregation and Violence in Jerusalem.
Chapter 8: The Next Big Thing A
Preamble to Urban Atrocities in Four Acts.
Chapter 9: Empire Saved My Life.-
Chapter 10: Urban Mechanisms of Armed Violence Exclusionary Boundaries and
Acute Forms of Spatial Division.
Chapter 11: Tearing the Seams Cycles of
Structural and Acute Violence in Aleppo.
Chapter 12: Nourish You.
Chapter
13: Reimagine Reclaim and Repurpose Urban Space for Justice and Healing.-
Chapter 14: From the Jungle to the City Ashas Journey.
Chapter 15: Toward
Urban Violence Prevention Committing to a Multisite Ethics of Care.
Chapter
16: We Want to Learn Restorative Justice to Protect Black Girls in
Education.
Chapter 17: Identifying Amplifying and Learning from Local
Peacebuilders A Transformative Journey.
Chapter 18: Mending the Fabric
Healing Communities Through Trauma Resilience and Awareness.
Chapter 19:
Urban Planning with Identity Exploring Alternative Methods and Possibilities
for Preventing Identity Based Mass Violence.
Chapter 20: Harnessing Art and
Crowdsourcing to Prevent Gender Based Violence.
Chapter 21: Urban Violence
Common Elements of Good and Promising City Led Prevention and Protection
Practices.
Chapter 22: To Get Revenge or Not That Is the Question.
Chapter
23: Hafiz.
Chapter 24: Policy Recommendations and Ways Forward.
Chapter 25:
Identity Based Mass Violence and Cities Concluding Thoughts.
Rachel Locke is Director of the Violence, Inequality and Power Lab at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, University of San Diego, USA. Locke co-founded Peace in Our Cities, a diverse global network driven by a shared vision of healthy, peaceful, and prosperous cities where serious violence is prevented through rights-based, evidence-informed policy and practice.
Kelsey Paul Shantz is Program Officer for mass violence and atrocities at the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, USA. Her prior research has spanned topics of global macro and microeconomics, peacebuilding, and defense and security.
Andrei Serbin Pont is President of CRIES (Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales), and Regional Coordinator for Social and Economic Research. He is also CEO of InnovAcción Hub, Regional Representative for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), and Adjunct Director of Pensamiento Propio.
Jai-Ayla Sutherland is Program Officer for mass violence and atrocities at the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, USA. In addition to her work focused on the prevention of mass violence across the globe, she has served as city councilor in Casper, Wyoming, USA.
