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Inside One Baltimore Group's Effort to Stop Youth Violence Before It Starts

J. Brian Charles

June 10, 2021 |

The Trace |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore's Roca program uses cognitive behavioral therapy, and patience and persistence, to work at changing the thinking of young people at high risk of committing or suffering gun violence. Counselors help their clients examine the trauma in their lives, learn to change their reactions to stress and conflict, and to choose legitimate jobs over the street economy. Unlike violence interruption programs that seek to mediate crises just as they threaten to turn deadly, Roca does its work further upstream, seeking to shape interactions before they turn critical.

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Texas Considers a Novel Push for Gun Violence Prevention

Chip Brownlee

March 31, 2021 |

The Trace |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Fort Worth, Texas

VIP Fort Worth modeled itself on a number of violence-intervention programs with a blended approach that has been so successful in such a short time that Texas officials are considering investing in a statewide version. Street outreach workers, many of them former gang members, mediate disputes and counsel young men at risk of getting shot or shooting others. In its first five months, it says it has prevented dozens of shootings through hundreds of direct contacts with people on the streets. Like the programs it's modeled on, it is an alternative to policing, operating independently.

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Promising Crime Solutions Are Being Undermined by Flawed Federal Ratings, Researchers Say

Champe Barton

March 19, 2021 |

The Trace |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

The National Institute of Justice created CrimeSolutions in 2011 to rate crime-reduction programs as effective or not, based on a review of research literature. The service aims to inform crime policymaking with the best available evidence of effectiveness. But its rigid standards mean that few programs get rated "effective," and many with mixed results get lumped in with truly ineffective programs for having "no effects." Critics say it misses the nuances in published studies by making ratings overly reliant on a strict reading of statistical significance.

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Should Abusers Keep Their Guns? In These 13 States, Judges Choose.

Ann Givens

January 26, 2021 |

The Trace |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

In four of the 13 states where judges have the power to deny domestic-violence abusers access to guns, arbitrarily applied standards lead to a patchwork of enforcement of the laws. A review of cases heard in Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, and South Dakota shows that outcomes depend more on the county in which a case is heard, or a particular judge's beliefs about guns, than on a consistent application of the laws' standards. In some cases, clear allegations of a dire threat did not win approval of a domestic protection order. In others, orders were granted without allegations that guns posed a threat.

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‘I Want Them to See That Someone Cares About Them'

J. Brian Charles

November 14, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

The Violence Intervention Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center's Shock Trauma Center helps people meet basic needs after they have suffered a gunshot injury. Along with clothing, transportation vouchers, and toothbrushes, the program's social workers also provide talk therapy. The goal is to keep victims of violence from becoming victims again, and the approach is to build trust by giving the help without strings attached. Many people return for the help, and the therapy.

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Portland's High Stakes Experiment to Shrink the Role of Police in Fighting Gun Violence

Casey Parks

September 10, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Portland, Oregon

Two years after reorganizing a police gun-enforcement unit to focus it on an evidence-based approach to preventing retaliatory shootings, Portland city leaders abolished the unit in a round of police budget cuts and failed to reinvest that money in community-based alternatives that don't rely on the police. The result, criminologists say, is a worst-case scenario: a policing reform that creates a vacuum and could be to blame for an alarming spike in gun violence. The most effective solutions, they say, blend effective policing with proven community-based programs.

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Gun Violence Left a Mark on His Childhood. He Says People Like Him Should Lead Efforts to Reduce It.

Ann Givens

August 13, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

The South Central Leadership Academy was started in Los Angeles by a college student who believes that gun violence survivors like him should lead the community response in finding solutions to violence. Its first year of paying more than a dozen student survivors to learn community organizing skills succeeded in attracting funding to expand to Nashville, Baltimore, and Atlanta. COVID-19 put the latter two expansions on hold, but LA and Nashville continued with well-attended classes learning remotely. Founder Marco Vargas hopes to turn this startup into a national network of youth leadership academies.

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Baltimore Hits Pause on Gun Violence Command Centers

J. Brian Charles

July 06, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

A strategy to improve the intelligence that steers policing and violence-intervention efforts has worked in Chicago and shown promising early signs in Baltimore. But plans to expand Strategic Decision Support Centers in Baltimore ran into political opposition, based on sentiment in favor of diverting police resources to other strategies. Chicago’s SDSC program is credited with a much greater reduction in shootings than in untargeted areas of the city. Baltimore likewise has seen homicides decline where SDSCs help police and violence interrupters decide where and on whom to focus their interventions.

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With Abuse Victims Trapped at Home, Detroit Moves Restraining Order System Online

Jennifer Mascia Katlyn Alo

May 29, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Detroit, Michigan

Domestic abuse risks are on the rise, at a time of social isolation, economic disruption, and gun-buying, and so Wayne County, Michigan, court officials responded to the closing of their courthouses by allowing people to seek orders of protection online. A replacement for an onerous, face-to-face process, the new e-filing system processed fewer applications in its first month than before the pandemic crisis, but at least preserved a steady flow of cases that enable victims to block their abusers from possessing guns. Victim advocates hope the new system expands access even after the courthouses reopen.

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Arkansas Moms Turn to Food Pantry Boxes to Distribute Safe Gun Storage Tips

Ann Givens

May 26, 2020 |

The Trace |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Jonesboro, Arkansas

After a 14-year-old girl in Jonesboro, Ark., accidentally shot and killed a friend, local activists distributed hundreds of fliers promoting safe gun storage strategies that have been proven to save lives. They gained access to a particularly vulnerable population by piggybacking on pandemic-related free-food distribution. Nationwide, children's deaths and injuries from accidental gunshots have increased substantially during the pandemic lockdown, with children idled at home and with gun sales surging.

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