A Hunger to Live: The Struggle to Interrupt the Cycle of Violence

Alternative programming that involves "restorative justice" models - such as having youth within the criminal justice system create art as a means of self expression instead of detaining them in a prison-like facility - are much more effective at preventing antisocial and criminal behavior in youth than involvement in the juvenile-justice system.

Whitten Preparatory, a mostly black middle school, is one of four schools in Jackson that are trying to combat disciplinary issues and keep violence low by using peer mediation - training students to be mediators so they can help their classmates come to a peaceful resolution to their issues.

Should police be law enforcers or social responders? Some leaders say "guardian" duty is at least important as purely law enforcement tasks, sometimes known as "warrior" work. That idea is rooted in centuries-old principles of policing.

Community Passageways does the kind of violence intervention work that the city of Seattle plans to invest in to expand its reach. Peer mentors reach out to young men at highest risk of suffering or committing violence. They mediate disputes and counsel the men on finding work and staying clear of criminal trouble. While this group has made progress in connecting people to jobs and other help, its effects on Seattle's recent surge in gun violence are unknown. Similar programs elsewhere, focusing on the same sets of conditions that cause much community violence, have been shown to be effective.

The House of Umoja in West Philadelphia, created in the late 1960s in response to high rates of gang violence, succeeded in helping thousands of young men through a residential treatment program, mediating disputes peacefully, and brokering a gang truce credited with lowering Philadelphia violence in the 1970s. The program was based on Afrocentric customs and family structure (its name means unity in Swahili). The grandson of the founders is now trying to revive the home as part of the city's multiple anti-violence initiatives.

Richmond, California has one of the nation’s highest gun violence rates, so Operation Peacemaker Fellowship tracks and identifies individuals at risk of committing violent acts or becoming a victim of violence. The Fellowship reaches out to each at-risk person with employment training, mentorship, and sends out teams to de-escalate conflicts within targeted communities. These “change agents” spend time with youth and get to know their families, so they can better understand how to help and offer a cash incentives to the targeted individuals who are part of the program.

Juvenile detention usually leads to worse outcomes for youth in the future, while Juvenile Detention Alternatives allow for decreases in detention populations and the likelihood that youth will stay trapped in the system for life.

Adolescent Opportunity Programs (AOPs) are a pre-intervention method for curtailing juvenile delinquency that have proven vital in the Mississippi state's criminal-justice system - they have the power to prevent young people from entering the system in the first place and save taxpayer costs in the long-term. But federal funding is threatening to run out.

Cure Violence is a the national non-profit organization that for 16 years has helped multiple cities adopt strategies for violence prevention that mirror those used in disease control. Programs employ trained “violence interrupters” and outreach workers to identify and mediate potentially deadly conflicts, maintaining relationships with those involved to ensure the conflict does not reignite. Cleveland hopes that replicating the model will help reduce local violence and crime.

In poor, crime-infected neighborhood with limited opportunities, where interactions with law enforcement are often toxic and punitive, and distrust on both sides is rampant. An integrated strategy is at the core of the model that can change this:"Operation Ceasefire," a form of targeted deterrence. The carrot-stick approach is carefully designed to reach men believed to be on the cusp of committing gun violence, let them know the consequences and help them fulfill their needs, thus finding a way to maybe change their trajectory into something more positive.