by April M. Short
July 24, 2020
Independent Media Institute
… Sheyla Delgado, deputy director for analytics at John Jay College and a researcher for the Cure Violence evaluation, says the comparisons offer promising evidence in favor of the program’s public health approach to violence reduction. She says what seems to make Cure Violence different from comparable programs that work to reduce violence is that it humanizes all of its participants.
…The Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice began its evaluation of Cure Violence in 2012. Researchers visited program sites and interviewed staff about the Cure Violence and collected data about violent incidents in the city from the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the state’s Department of Health. Researchers also conducted annual surveys of young men living in 12 New York neighborhoods, some with and some without Cure Violence programs between 2012 and 2016.
Delgado says the human-oriented approach to the research, as well as the decision to use comparable neighborhoods, make the research approach particularly strong. She says it also helps to paint perhaps a more nuanced picture of how the Cure Violence program actually operates on a human level.