Cure Violence

Proof No. 24

Cure Violence | Dr. Gary Slutkin — Stage: Mid-Scale

When epidemiologist Gary Slutkin returned from fighting cholera in Africa, he noticed Chicago’s shooting maps looked just like disease maps. His breakthrough: stop gun violence the way you stop an outbreak—find new “cases,” send trusted violence interrupters to break chains of retaliation, and shift local norms against pulling a trigger. On the ground, interrupters get real-time alerts, show up within minutes at hotspots or hospital bedsides, and stay with high-risk individuals for months, connecting them to jobs and counseling. Independent studies show it works: shootings dropped 63 % in South Bronx zones and homicides fell 56 % in Baltimore sites within a year. The method now runs in 25 U.S. cities and 15 countries, and public-health departments, hospitals, and even the White House frame violence as a health problem, not an inevitable crime wave. Researchers estimate that if every high-burden U.S. city adopted a full public-health package—street outreach, hospital intervention, and data-driven hotspot work—tens of thousands of shootings a yearcould be prevented for a fraction of traditional enforcement costs. Cure Violence points to a future where safer streets come from community health, not harsher punishment.

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