Life in Chicago’s poorest neighbourhoods can sometimes feel like a warzone.
In 2015, an average of one person every three hours was shot in Chicago – more than in any other city in the US. Over the course of the calendar year, there were nearly 3,000 shooting victims in the so-called Windy City.
According to a recent American Academy of Pediatrics study, 14 million, or one in five, children in the US are exposed to violence involving a weapon between the ages of six and 17.
Chicago has struggled for years to stem the ongoing violence, but the impact goes far beyond the lives that are lost.
Children are growing up without a baseline of safety, so what are the longterm impact of this continuous exposure to violence and trauma? How will the ever-present violence affect their health and outlook on life?
Fault Lines went to Chicago to examine the psychological toll of violence on children growing up in Chicago’s most dangerous and most neglected communities.