Violence interruption

Violence interruption is a community-based approach to reducing communal and interpersonal violence that treats violence as a public health problem.^[1][2] Violence interruption is a focused deterrence, problem oriented and community driven practice to addressing gun violence. It is a partnership between law enforcement and community partners.^[3] Individuals providing violence interruption services are known as violence interrupters.^[4] Techniques used include mediation and measures to address underlying causes of violence such as poverty.^{[citation needed]} These mediation's are usually between rival gangs. The violence interrupters are people who have lived experience and usually come from the neighborhoods they work in. Maintaining respect and trust from the community is of the utmost importance to foster strong relationships with the individuals who are being served so that they maintain their credibility as messengers. They also help these individuals access services that can address the underlying root causes of an individual's actions. For example, job training and job placement.^[5] The Advance Peace model implemented in Richmond, California, in 2009 provides opportunities that are transformative to the young men referred to their program. These young men, that are identified as drivers of violence, have to check in daily. The program provides transformative travel, internship opportunities, elders' circles and social service navigation just to name a few.^[6]

The initiatives use a public health model to prevent violence and crime by treating them as diseases.^[2] This type of model is called cure violence. Other models, such as the ceasefire program implemented in Boston in 1996, have proven to be more effective. The program decreased homicides by 71% and reduced gun assaults by 70%. This data was tracked from May 1996, program implementation, to May 31, 1998.^[7]

As of 2018 initiatives were in place in Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore and other US cities, as well as in London and Glasgow.^[2][4]

Violence interruption is distinct from law enforcement as an approach to ending violence, although the two approaches can sometimes be regarded as complementary to one another.^[2] In fact, violence interruption programs are always implemented in partnership with the district attorney’s office, parole officers, probation officers, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. The component that makes this strategy so successful is the community partner agencies and the interrupters themselves. Law enforcement agencies are an integral part of these programs because they are the ones that identify who are the drivers of violence in need of intervention.^[7]

The (HAVI) is a network of hospital-based violence intervention programs that cultivate relationships between the hospitals and community social service agencies to provide resources and services to victims of gun violence.^[8] Oakland California implemented a hospital-based violence intervention program to conduct research and assess the effectiveness of this model of violence intervention. The participants were predominantly Black and Latino youth between the ages of 12 to 20 years old. Youth that had received an intervention at the hospital were less likely to be arrested for any offenses by 70% and less likely to continue committing crimes by 60%.^[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, violence interrupters helped encourage social distancing, hand washing, and other measures to limit viral spread and helped distribute food and supplies in the areas they served.^[10][11][12]

History[]

In the 1990s epidemiologist Gary Slutkin noticed similarities between the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the violence occurring in Chicago at the time, noticing that violence was happening in "clusters," seemed to be "replicating itself", and was increasing rapidly, just like disease epidemics did.^[2] He recognized these as the three classic signs of contagious disease and decided to treat it as that.^[2] He applied for funding and started a pilot program which eventually became Cure Violence.^[2] Using a sociological technique he and colleagues had developed fighting AIDS in Uganda, he recruited former gang members as "Violence Interrupters" to do outreach.^[2] According to the BBC, "The results were instant; crime in its pilot area, West Garfield, dropped significantly. Soon the project was being adopted across other troubled parts of [Chicago]."^[2]

Minneapolis employed a violence interrupters team in September 2020.^[13] However, four weeks later, it was scaled back due to weather;^[14] a consultant with the group said they were asked to step back during the election season.

In 2019, Albuquerque Police Department and the Mayor's office visited Oakland CA and New Haven CT to research their group violence intervention programs. In March 2020 they started program implementation. The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) was created. By June 2020 a skeleton crew was in place. Consisting of a program manager, police commander and a violence interrupter. The Violence Intervention Program is a hybrid model of cure violence and group violence intervention.^[15] Albuquerque's VIP targets a very small percentage of the population, .001%, who are high risk individuals of committing gun violence.^[16] VIP will attempt to break the cycles of violence that at times is inter-generational. It will include these 5 components: Analysis of violent crimes and trends. Respectful, in-person communication with high-risk individuals, relationship-based social services for high-risk individuals, narrowly focused law enforcement actions and intentional management and partnership with prosecutors and other law enforcement agencies.^[16]

See also[]

• The Interrupters

References[]