August 12, 2008

CeaseFire - a more peaceful way of reducing violence

For the last several years, the city of Chicago has been applying a novel approach to crime reduction. Known as CeaseFire, it is a program endorsed by the U.S. Justice Department that has led to a significant reduction in the number of homicides (16% - 70%) in that city. This translates to a change in the city being ranked 15-20th most violent in the U.S. in 2000/2001, when the program started, to around 40th in 2006.

The program, which works with the cooperation of police, has several components, including a public education campaign designed to change attitudes. It also helps communities, its residents and leaders, to mobilize to actively prevent violence among citizens. The guiding vision is dealing with violent behaviour, especially that which ends in shooting, not in more common ways that often perpetuate it, but with more enlightened, less judgemental methods that attempt to help the individuals involved to leave the cycle of violence. To accomplish this, CeaseFire employs community outreach workers and so-called violence interrupters. Both receive training and are paid for their work, which involves steering individuals away from using violent means of dealing with problems, preventing violence before it occurs. The outreach workers focus on changing thinking and behaviours, working with a client base of high-risk youth, and attempt to turn them to education or employment. The violence interrupters, many of whom have had served time and had ties to gangs, do not have specific clients, but work with youth, often to diffuse tensions and maintain peace, urging youth to seek nonviolent ways of acheiving status. They often are well acquainted with the individuals they work with.

The program, pioneered by epidemiologist Dr. Gary Slutkin, was inspired by methods applied to contagion in infectious disease, treating violent behaviour as a highly contagious disease, where every instance perpetuates more.