transmitted through known social links, and the gap between one
shooting and the next is long enough for interrupters to intervene. If
shootings were more random, or the gap between them was always
much shorter, violence interruption wouldn’t be so effective.
An independent evaluation of Cure Violence by the US National
Institute for Justice found a substantial drop in shootings in areas
where the programme had been introduced. It can be tough to assess
the precise impact of anti-violence programmes, because violence
may have already been declining for some other reason. But violence
hadn’t declined as much in comparable areas of Chicago, suggesting
that Cure Violence was in fact behind the reduction in shootings in
many locations. In 2007, Cure Violence started working in Baltimore.
When researchers at Johns Hopkins University later assessed the
results, they estimated that in its first two years, the programme had
prevented around thirty-five shootings and five homicides. Other
studies have found similar reductions after the introduction of Cure
Violence methods.[25]
Even so, the Cure Violence approach has not been free from
criticism. Much of the scepticism has come from those in charge of
existing approaches; in the past, there have been complaints from
Chicago police about a lack of co-operation from interrupters. There
have also been instances of violence interrupters being charged with
other crimes. Such challenges are perhaps inevitable, given that the
programme relies on having interrupters that are part of the
communities at risk, rather than another branch of the police.[26]
Then there’s the timescale of social change. While stopping
retaliatory attacks can have an immediate effect on violence, tackling
the underlying social issues may take years.[27] The same is true
with infectious diseases: we might be able to stop outbreaks, but we
also need to think about underlying weaknesses in health systems
that enabled them in the first place.
Building on their early work in Chicago, Cure Violence has
expanded to other US cities, including Los Angeles and New York, as
well as launching projects in countries like Iraq and Honduras. Public
health approaches would also inspire a ‘Violence Reduction Unit’ in
Glasgow, Scotland. Back in 2005, the city was named the murder