The city curing violence like a disease


The Cure Violence program in Chicago uses former gang members as "violence interrupters" to intervene in imminent gun violence incidents, a public-health approach that treats violence like a communicable disease that can be contained before it spreads. Neighborhoods using the approach have experienced drops in violence. London officials, seeing that the program had similar positive effects when used by Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit, are starting a program to respond to high rates of knife crimes. But the amount they are investing is too small, one criminologist warns.

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