Violence interruption

Cure Violence is a Violence interruption program for anti-violence. It aims to stop the spread of violence in communities by using the methods and strategies associated with public health and disease control: detecting and interrupting conflicts, identifying and treating the highest risk individuals, and changing social norms.

History

Originally developed under the name "CeaseFire" in 2000, U.S. epidemiologist Gary Slutkin launched the model in West Garfield, the most violent community in Chicago at the time. During CeaseFire's first year, shootings dropped by 67 percent.

A three-year evaluation of the Chicago implementation by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2009 found shootings and killings were reduced by 41 percent to 73 percent, shooting hot spots were reduced in size and intensity, and retaliatory murders were eliminated. "A striking finding was how important CeaseFire loomed in their lives", the researchers stated in the report. "Clients noted the importance of being able to reach their outreach worker at critical moments—when they were tempted to resume taking drugs, were involved in illegal activities, or when they felt that violence was imminent." The lead evaluator commented that, "I found the statistical results to be as strong as you could hope for."

In response to the Chicago results, federal funding for the approach was made available in 2008 and new programs were started in Baltimore and New York City, which were also evaluated and found to be effective. The US State Department also funded a pilot program in Basr and Sadr City, Iraq, which was operational from 2008 to 2013 and conducted nearly 1,000 conflict mediations.

CeaseFire was reorganized and changed its name to Cure Violence in September 2012. Cure Violence now refers to the larger organization and overall health approach, while local program partner sites often operate under other names. In December, 2015, Cure Violence has 23 cities implementing the Cure Violence health approach in over 50 sites in the U.S. International program partner sites are operating in Trinidad, Honduras, Mexico, South Africa, Canada and Colombia.

Model

Cure Violence's founder and executive director, Gary Slutkin, is an epidemiologist and a physician who for ten years battled infectious diseases in Africa. He says that violence directly mimics infections like tuberculosis and AIDS, thus the treatment ought to follow the regimen applied to these diseases: go after the most infected, and stop the infection at its source.

Cure Violence approaches violence in an entirely new way: as a contagious disease that can be stopped using the same health strategies employed to fight epidemics. The Cure Violence model trains and deploys outreach workers and violence interrupters to mitigate conflict on the street before it turns violent. These interrupters are credible messengers, trusted members of the communities served, who use their street credibility to model and teach community members better ways of communicating with each other and how to resolve conflicts peacefully.

Cure Violence follows a three-pronged health approach to violence prevention: detection and interruption of planned violent activity, behavior change of high-risk individuals, and changing community norms.

Members of the community with credibility among the target population are hired and trained in the methods of mediation and behavior change and work to stop retribution from occurring or violence being created due to lack of communication and tense situations. One volunteer was interviewed for a BBC article and stated she defused situations by arranging funerals, bringing food, talking to and distracting ''los que los jalan'' (the leaders), bringing in community leaders, and stepping in at hospitals and rental complexes.

The Cure Violence method has been promoted by the Institute of Medicine, the National League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors, Department of Justice and was described in the ''Economist'' as "the approach that will come to prominence."

Funding

Original funding for CeaseFire came from contributions from federal and state grants, and from local foundations and corporations, providing a $6.2 million budget for 2005 and $9.4 million for 2006.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded CeaseFire a grant for the period 2007 to 2012. Today the organization is funded by fee-for-service for trainings and technical assistance, individuals nationally and abroad, and grants from governments, corporations and foundations.

Evaluation

In May 2008, Professor Wesley G. Skogan, an expert on crime and policing at Northwestern University, completed a three-year, independent, Department of Justice-funded report on CeaseFire, which found that the program successfully reduced shootings and killings by 41% to 73%. Retaliatory shootings were reduced 100% in five of the seven communities examined in the report.

In an independent evaluation of the Cure Violence model at the Baltimore partner program site commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and conducted by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore's Safe Streets program, the Cure Violence partner site, is credited with reducing shootings and killings by up to 34–56%. Community norm changes occurred, even with non-clients and reductions spread to surrounding communities.

Daniel Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, advocates for such an interventionist approach to violent crime, believing the benefits of Ceasefire's intercession are many. On CNN.com, Webster said, "Violence is reciprocal. Stopping one homicide through mediation could buy you peace for months down the road."

The US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance contracted with the Center for Court Innovation to evaluate the Cure Violence New York City program partner site and found the gun violence rate in the program site to be 20% lower than what it would have been had its change mirrored the average change in comparison precincts.

John Jay College was contracted by several funders to conduct an  extensive, independent evaluation on the Cure Violence approach in New York City, which found a reduction in violence, a shift in norms, and an improvement in police-community relations. The evaluation found a 37% to 50% reduction in gun injuries in the two communities examined. Additionally, the study found a 14% reduction in attitudes supporting violence (with no change in controls) and an increased confidence in police and increased willingness to contact police. A 2015 report found that the average homicide rate in NYC program neighborhoods fell by 18% while increasing an average 69% in comparison neighborhoods.

An evaluation of the program in Port of Spain, Trinidad conducted by Arizona State University and funded by the InterAmerican Development Bank found a 45% reduction in violent crime in the service area.

Cure Violence was ranked one of the top ten NGOs by NGO Advisor in 2019.

Cure Violence, however, has not been free of criticism. Dr. Malte Riemann cautioned that the model displays a neoliberal logic that runs the risk of 'replacing political solutions with medical diagnosis and treatment models'. This has depoliticizing effects as 'violence becomes disentangled from socio-economic inequalities and explained by reference to individual pathology alone'. The possible limitations of the model's extension to conflict resolution have also been discussed, especially the 'risk of undermining the establishment of positive peace in a post-conflict environment'.

Partners

National Sites:
*Baltimore Safe Streets in Baltimore, Maryland
*Aim 4 Peace in Kansas City, Missouri
*Cure for Camden, Camden, New Jersey
*CeaseFire Illinois, Chicago
*CeaseFire New Orleans, Louisiana
*Operation SNUG in New York City
*Brooklyn/Crown Heights, New York City
*Operation SNUG in New York
*Cure Violence/NYC Mission Society, Harlem, New York City
*Stand Against Violence, East Harlem, New York City
*49 Strong Saving Lives, Staten island
*Save our Streets, Bronx, New York City
*Cure Violence, South Jamaica, New York City
*CYO, Inc. in Oakland, California
*Cure Violence Philadelphia
*Philadelphia CeaseFire
*City of San Antonio- Stand Up SA
*Cease Violence, Wilmington, Delaware

International Sites:
*The Chaos Theory (The Safety Box) in London, UK
*CeaseFire Hanover Park (2 sites), in Hanover Park, Cape Town, South Africa
*The Citizen Security Program in Trinidad & Tobago
*Taller de Salud, Inc., Loiza Puerto Rico
*Cristo de la Roca in San Pedro Sula, Honduras
*Cure Violence plus PeaceTXT messaging to reduce election violence, Sisi Ni Amani-Kenya
*American Islamic Congress, 3 sites in Basrah and 2 sites in Sadr City-Baghdad, Iraq
*Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
*Barrio Positivo, Honduras
*CeaseFire Halifax, Canada

''The Interrupters'' (2011 documentary)

'' The Interrupters'' is a film, produced in 2011 by Kartemquin Films, that documents the story of three CeaseFire outreach workers. It was directed and produced by Steve James, director of ''Hoop Dreams'' and also produced by Alex Kotlowitz, an author who first wrote about the organization for the '' New York Times Magazine'' in 2009. The film emphasizes the notion that much of the violence on the streets results from interpersonal conflict, rather than from gang-related disputes.

The film follows three interrupters—Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra. Ameena, the daughter of Jeff Fort—a major gang leader in the 1970s—spent time as a teen involved in a gang, and now takes to the streets to keep youths from doing the same. Ricardo "Cobe" Williams did three stints in jail for attempted murder and drug-related charges, and Eddie Bocanegra served 14 years in jail for a murder he committed at age 17.

The film premiered at 2011 Sundance. It aired as a PBS Frontline broadcast in February 2012.

In the media

*A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity; Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
*Violence as a Public Health Problem: A Most Violent Year by Dr. Lloyd Sederer, Huffington Post, 12/9/2014
*Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla; David Kilcullen
*Beyond Suppression: Global Perspectives on Youth Violence; Joan Serra Hoffman, Lyndee Knox, and Robert Cohen
*Epidemiological Criminology: Theory to Practice; edited by Eve Waltermaurer, Timothy A. Akers
*"Violence Is a Contagious Disease"– by Dr. Gary Slutkin
*"Contagion of Violence" – 2012 Institute of Medicine report
*"Cure Violence: A Disease Control Approach to Reduce Violence and Change Behavior" – by Charles Ransford, Candice Kane, and Gary Slutkin

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

www.cvg.org
nbsp;– Organization site
Archived version
as of January 2021)

by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn


by Dr. Lloyd Sederer, ''Huffington Post'', December 9, 2014


''Time'', September 2, 2009.
* Don Terry
"A Gang War Destroys Lives and Prods Peacemakers"
''The New York Times'', May 1, 2010
* Bob Herbert

''The New York Times'', May 10, 2010

Organizations established in 2000
University of Illinois Chicago
Law enforcement non-governmental organizations in the United States
Violence interruption