Cure Violence is a public health approach to violence prevention and reduction. It aims to stop the spread of violence in communities by using the methods and strategies associated with epidemic disease control: detecting and interrupting conflicts, identifying and treating the highest risk individuals, and changing social norms.
History
Cure Violence has its roots in a 1999 organizing effort which included religious leaders, law enforcement officials, and academics. In particular, Dr. Gary Slutkin, who was directing the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention at the University of Illinois, promoted a plan to prevent violence based on the previously successful Operation Ceasefire. Cardinal Francis George and Police Superintendant Terry Hillard supported the effort and a formed a formal coalition at the end of that year. In early 2000, they took their first major public action by setting up cease-fire zones throughout the city. Within these zones, participants agreed to a rapid response to shooting incidents to spread grassroots messages against gun violence, in addition to the traditional law enforcement investigation. Soon thereafter they took on the name CeaseFire Chicago.
The program grew over the next 7 years. They received funding from a variety of sources including the government, private foundations, and community foundations. They originally restricted their work to specific high-risk Chicago neighborhoods which contained pre-existing activist communities, but expanded to other neighborhoods starting in 2003. Local police facilitated their work by giving them access to data such as crime trends in weekly meetings. In the following year, Illinois quintupled their funding for the organization, facilitating work in 5 Illinois cities (including Chicago). Then-First Lady Laura Bush visited CeaseFire headquarters in 2005 and praised their achievements. In 2006, a state grant helped the organization spread to Decatur. They worked with local community members and planned their work through 4 lenses: monthly planning, policy establishment and client advocacy, promotional activities, and coordination with religious leaders. In 2007, a similar program was started in Kansas City with training from CeaseFire workers. In the same year Baltimore also started a program which was said to be inspired by CeaseFire.
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, as the name implies, draws an analogy between the way diseases are transmitted between individuals and the way that violence spreads through communities. Their work can be compared to the work that antibiotics or vaccinations do in preventing a disease from damaging its host and spreading to others. As Gary Slutkin (the founder of Cure Violence) told the Chicago Tribune, "Violence follows usual epidemiological patterns, when you look at charts, graphs and maps, it follows exactly like all epidemics. You can think of an epidemic of a flu or tuberculosis, where there are very few cases, then there are more and more. Violence has a contagious nature. The requirement for intervention becomes obvious, you have to interact with the people who have been 'infected.'"
Cure Violence identifies metaphorically infected individuals by assessing whether they meet certain conditions, such as being a prominent member of a gang or being a recent victim of violence. If a worker suspects that their client is going to commit violence soon, they will try to talk them out of it in a practice known as . Additionally, they will keep in touch with their clients in order to gather information and help guide them towards more constructive activities, referred to as . Finally, the organization as a whole uses to build a strong culture of anti-violence.
Violence Interruption
Violence interruption is an immediate response to imminent violence; people who perform this work are referred to as interrupters. They work with their clients to find peaceful alternatives to potentially violent situations. The way they approach this is personalized to the client and the situation. For example, if they are facing cyclical gang violence then the worker might talk to their client about the perpetual harm this causes and attempt to broker peace through talks.