In 2017, more than 17,000 people were murdered in the United States, most of them in cities. On New Thinking, Thomas Abt, a long-time policy-maker and researcher, says, far from intractable, there are proven ways to reduce the violence, but he worries the urgency of acting now is being ignored. And when it comes to how we think about violence, he has a bone to pick with both the right and the left.
As part of a conference sponsored by the Center for Court Innovation and the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, we asked justice system leaders and experts, "If you could make just one investment to improve criminal justice in New York City, what would it be?"
Safety is more than just the absence of crime. We asked people from communities around New York City, including our staff and people they work with, about safety—how they define it, and how they’d improve it in the neighborhoods where they live.
On our New Thinking podcast, Patrick Sharkey, the author of Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence, discusses the wider costs of violence and the threat posed by inequality and disinvestment to the current fragile gains. He points to the signal role of community organizing and community-based nonprofits in combating violence and building safer, more resilient cities.
Programs focused on reducing gun violence, particularly public health initiatives such as Save Our Streets Crown Heights, are in a unique position to address the trauma that many young men of color experience. This fact sheet outlines strategies for violence interrupter programs to use in addressing trauma among their participants.
This report presents the results of a comprehensive impact and process evaluation of the anti-violence initiative Save Our Streets, which started in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in 2010. Results demonstrate that the initiative had a statistically significant impact on gun violence trends in Crown Heights when compared with three similar precincts in Brooklyn.
Authors of new research about gun violence in Brooklyn, New York, Sarah Picard-Fritsche and Lenore Lebron discuss findings on Save Our Streets (S.O.S.) Crown Heights, an approach to gun violence prevention in the Crown Heights neighborhood.
