Understanding what work is being done, anything that lets researchers “pull back the curtain,” is important, said Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Understanding what work is being done, anything that lets researchers “pull back the curtain,” is important, said Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
As the city added more Cure Violence programs in pre-pandemic years, gun violence and deaths declined, said Sheyla Delgado, the deputy director of analytics at John Jay’s Research and Evaluation Center. “Can we say that is solely due to the appearance of these programs? Absolutely not,” Delgado said. “But they’re certainly a factor to consider.”
A number of cities have implemented or adapted Cure Violence’s strategies to address gun violence in their communities. But to what end? … A 2020 report by John Jay College on alternatives to policing notes that the work of outreach workers and violence interrupters is “promising but mixed.”
The key, we heard over and over again, is to have cops work in tandem with community-based “violence interrupters” — credible messengers from troubled communities who have the savvy and connections to quietly intervene at critical moments and persuade gang members, dope dealers, and other weapon-carriers not to resort to violence.
Jeffrey Butts, who runs the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College, says setting up cure violence programs in a way that generates evidence of what methods work to reduce shootings will be essential going forward…
“They should not operate in hostility to law enforcement…but they need to operate almost autonomously,” said Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. “If the neighborhood starts to think that these programs are in cahoots with law enforcement, the young people in the neighborhood will stop talking to the workers.”