Assessing Trends in Violence and Violence Prevention in Oakland, California: 2016-2019

Violent crime rates have fallen substantially in Oakland, California over the past 15 years, but violence prevention remains a top priority for the city. Oakland Unite, a network of community-based organizations focused on violence prevention, has been one of the city’s key efforts to tackle this issue. Oakland Unite administers grants and provides coordination through a set of complementary interventions designed to improve outcomes for participants and ultimately reduce citywide violent crime. In this brief, we examine the services provided by Oakland Unite from 2016 to 2019 in the context of violent crime and other conditions across Oakland’s neighborhoods, and summarize our past findings from this four-year evaluation period.