Last month, GREMAP staff member Alejandro Rodríguez-Putnam was invited to present at the Collective Action for Violence Prevention Symposium held by the Puerto Rico (PR) Institute of Statistics. His talk was titled “Prevention of violent deaths by firearms” and discussed key findings and frameworks from the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention pilot study that he manages along with Dr. Mezuk and Dr. Elyse Thulin. This study leverages quantitative and qualitative data from the PR Violent Death Reporting System (PR-VDRS) to identify and characterize collective violence in homicide cases of Puerto Rican men aged 15-44.

An integral part of this study is our close collaboration with investigators from the PR Institute of Statistics, notably Dr. Diego Zavala and Mariluz Bezares Salinas, who lead the PR-VDRS data collection and analysis efforts. This symposium was a great opportunity to present our findings in conversation the work of Dr. Zavala and other researchers from the Institute of Statistics as well as to engage with stakeholders working in violence prevention in PR.

You can read more about the symposium in the press release here. Also, as a part of the event’s media coverage, both Alejandro and Dr. Zavala were interviewed by the local news to comment on the importance of violence prevention for youth mental health. You can watch the full news segment here.

Amazing work, Alejandro and congratulations on this accomplishment!