Francisco Sanchez said his days as a gang leader on Chicago’s West Side were over. At 50, he said he had seen numerous lives ruined by violence — young people losing the best years of their lives to prison; children left without parents in the name of petty disputes and turf wars. That’s why he became something else: a leader in an organization committed to ending gun violence.

Comments from Jeffrey Butts included in a CBS News profile of a Florida Sheriff who uses game-show style offender notification.

Jeffrey Butts, interviewed on WRVA NewsRadio, discussing possible connections between immigration and crime.

Two years ago, the Illinois legislature slashed funding for Cure Violence, a neighborhood-level violence-intervention program in Chicago that some researchers and community leaders had credited with easing tensions between rival gangs, and helping slow the spate of deadly shootings.

Positive youth development maintains that five assets enable teens to mature into law-abiding citizens: strong bonds with adults and prosocial peers, a safe home, a healthy lifestyle, opportunities for civic engagement and an effective education and success in the labor market.

There is a constant struggle between street-work models that favor some cooperation with police, and those that favor total detachment, said Jeffrey Butts, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who is studying the effectiveness of Cure Violence. Butts said it’s not necessary to choose one or the other.

Jeffrey Butts was interviewed on WRVA NewsRadio about different rates of change in violent crime in U.S. cities, especially contrasting Chicago with New York.

Other sources of potential support [for Raise the Age] faded away, explains Jeffrey Butts of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, due to fundamental misgivings with the quality of even the juvenile justice system and with the arbitrary choice of 18 as a magical birthday. Butts and others have advocated for a total overhaul of the system, so that it gradually escalates responsibility and adjusts services up to age 25.

A once notorious juvenile detention facility in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx will be the site of a new project anchored by affordable housing, in a plan scheduled to be detailed Thursday by New York City officials.

Despite recent upticks, the crime rate remains at near-record lows with data showing violent crime down 16.5 percent compared with a decade ago.

Murders up 10.8% in biggest percentage increase since 1971, FBI data shows Rising violence in 2015 driven by increase in … More

Kids who are sentenced by college-football-loving judges who are disappointed after unexpected team losses are finding themselves behind bars for longer than kids who are sentenced after wins or predicted losses.