Listening for a change

What are the effects of the death penalty in Texas?

People whose loved ones have been murdered or executed often believe that no one can possibly understand their pain or see the world through their eyes. They are right.

What would happen if, instead of debating, we stopped to listen to the lived experiences of people whose lives have been directly touched -- and often radically altered -- by these tragedies?

What if we listened to those who have lived through both individual violence and structural violence? How would our understanding shift if we heard from survivors of violence that shocked and disrupted otherwise calm individual lives, as well as from those for whom violence is familiar? What if we attended to residents of colonias, rural areas, and other low-income or marginalized places? What would happen if we listened to people -- including Black people, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans - who have endured specific forms of historically ingrained, institutionalized oppression? What might people with disabilities, the formerly incarcerated, the modestly educated, the poor, immigrants, and the elderly teach us?

What if each person spoke only from her or his own experience?

Listening with empathy and without judgment to narratives of lived experience, The Texas After Violence Project seeks to understand the effects of violent crime and capital punishment and to engage communities in thinking collectively, critically, and constructively about how to most effectively respond to and prevent violence.