Geremy Lowe

Geographic Areas of Study: United States and Metropolitan Areas

Research Areas of Interest: History of science, technology, and society, history of population health, public health epistemology, youth health behaviors, health citizenship, boipolitics, biopower, and law enforcement public health.

My project examines the foundational role of the Atlanta Missing and Murdered Children cases (1979–1981) in shaping violence epidemiology as a scientific discipline within public health. The Atlanta child murders marked a turning point in how violence, especially against children, was understood, studied, and addressed. As a spatial epidemiologist, I inquired about the involvement of epidemiologists and Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Fulton County Board of Health in analyzing victim patterns. This was the first instance where public health methodologies were systematically employed to investigate violence. This effort ultimately led to the establishment of the CDC’s Violence Epidemiology Branch in 1983, laying the foundation for violence prevention as a public health initiative.

My research aims to explore how violence epidemiology emerged as a scientific field and created public health epistemologies that shaped perceptions of youth violence in urban Black communities. Violence epidemiology utilizes epidemiological data and methods to evaluate causal relationships between exposure to harmful conditions and violent injury or death. By examining the circumstances surrounding violence, such as socioeconomic factors, environmental risks, and systemic neglect, violence epidemiology offers a framework for reducing the frequency and severity of violence through data-driven interventions.

Oral history is a crucial component of my project. Conducting interviews with surviving family members of the victims, public health professionals, law enforcement officials, and policymakers from that time will allow me to document their perspectives and experiences. These firsthand accounts will illuminate how epidemiologists and investigators collaborated to establish violence epidemiology as a scientific discipline, while also capturing the voices of those directly affected by the crisis. Oral history will offer a human-centered approach to understanding the evolution of violence prevention in public health, ensuring that the experiences of affected families remain central to the narrative.

This project poses analytical questions: How did the application of epidemiological methods to the Atlanta child murders lead to the establishment of violence epidemiology as a public health science? How did this new understanding of youth violence impact public health research and policymaking? What role did the science of violence epidemiology play in shaping other areas of violence typically viewed as crime?

By addressing these questions, my research will provide a historical account of the emergence of violence epidemiology while contributing to broader discussions on violence prevention, equity in public health, and the need for data-driven approaches to social crises. Ultimately, this project seeks to bridge the gap between history, public health, and community advocacy, ensuring that the lessons of the past continue to inform efforts to prevent violence today.