Lack of targeted supports for survivors

Neither Black people impacted by gun violence nor those bereaved by homicide are recognized as distinct populations within Canada’s victim service frameworks, their needs subsumed within the broad and undifferentiated category of victims of crime. For those bereaved by homicide, the experience of losing a family member or friend to murder is sudden, violent, and often public, unfolding alongside a criminal justice process that can extend and retraumatize for years. Homicide-bereaved individuals face a significantly heightened risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related traumatic stress symptoms compared to survivors of other violent crime (Zinzow et al., 2011), navigating shock, rage, guilt, helplessness, grief, isolation, and dissociation as they attempt to make meaning of a loss that defies ordinary understanding (Sharpe & Iwamoto, 2022; Armour, 2003; Rheingold et al., 2012). For Black people living in the aftermath of gun violence, non-fatal shootings can result in permanent physical disability, chronic pain, neurological injury, and severe psychological trauma, with recovery further complicated by ongoing community violence, economic disruption, and the trauma of navigating medical and legal systems that rarely centre their experiences. Despite growing evidence of the distinct and severe impacts of both homicide bereavement and gun violence survivorship, Canada lacks homicide and gun violence specific support services at the scale required to help those in need.