Group Violence Reduction Strategy

Advanced Tools


Webinar: Talking Back to Violence - Custom Notifications of Impact Players
The Group Violence Reduction Strategy's no-violence message is typically delivered by law enforcement and community speakers at a traditional call-in to group members mandated to attend under the terms of their probation and parole. However, National Network sites have also started to communicate directly with group members not on paper and who are known to drive violence in their communities. Such "custom notifications" with "impact players" are proving to be an effective crime prevention tool. Carried out by community partners and/or law enforcement representatives, and tailored to the group members' personal circumstances and criminal history, they are particularly suited to stop retaliatory or simmering violence in between regular call-ins. This webinar sets out the steps involved in conducting both community and law enforcement-led custom notifications. Click here for the PowerPoint presentation.

Racial Reconciliation, Truth Telling, and Police Legitimacy (2012) 
This report discusses issues raised at an executive session hosted by the COPS Office and the National Network for Safe Communities in Washington, D.C. on January 11,2012. This publication gives police executives the chance to hear from their own colleagues why engaging in the process of racial reconciliation is not only morally but also functionally and operationally critical. The concepts of police legitimacy, legal cynicism, and informal social control introduced here provide the theoretical underpinning that helps to explain in practical terms how police who actively and sincerely engage with their communities of color will find they can do their job better and more effectively. Citizens are more likely to obey the law, cooperate with the police, believe in the legitimacy of the formal justice system, and set internal community norms that reinforce lawful behavior. This collectively results in achieving the primary goals of law enforcement: reducing violence, decreasing fear of crime, and increasing quality of life.

Enhancing Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing (2011)
In this collection of short interviews with the National Institute of Justice, Tracey Meares, Deputy Dean and Walton Hamilton Professor of Yale Law School, explains the notion of legitimacy in policing and why enhancing perceptions of police legitimacy can produce better, cheaper and longer-lasting crime reduction outcomes than the threat of formal sanctions. For an in-depth discussion, watch a webcast of Professor Meares' lecture on “The Legitimacy of Police Among Young African-American Men" at the Marquette University Law School.

Four Case Studies of Swift and Meaningful Law Enforcement Responses (2011)
For the group violence reduction strategy to achieve its desired outcomes, stakeholders must be authentic and their messages credible. For law enforcement this means making good on the promise of swift and meaningful consequences for a group or gang as a whole when a prohibited violent act (usually shooting or killing) is committed by one of its members. This document captures examples of successful and creative law enforcement responses to group violence as carried out by police departments and their partner agencies in key National Network jurisdictions.

Webinar: Employing Streetworkers to Address Group Violence (2011)
The Institute of the Study & Practice of Nonviolence in Providence is a national pioneer in training and employing professional street outreach workers to address and prevent violence. It has also forged a highly effective partnership with the Providence Police Department that the National Network for Safe Communities believes can serve as a model for other jurisdictions seeking to utilize street outreach workers as part of implementing the group violence reduction strategy. In this webinar, the Institute’s Executive Director Teny Gross and Streetworker Program Manager Ajay Benton discuss the following key issues: Principles and Practice of Nonviolence; Training; Hiring & Firing; Partnering With Police, Schools, and Hospitals; Selecting Target Clients; Managing Risks; Managing Public Relations; Measuring Success. Click here for the webinar's PowerPoint.

Webinar: Using Social Network Analysis in Crime Prevention (2011)
Social network analysis— the scientific tool behind social media like Facebook and Twitter—is used widely in the private sector to understand markets and organizations and in the health sector to understand the spread of disease. It can be used just as effectively to devise new ways to reduce violent crime. Leadership Group jurisdictions Chicago and Cincinnati have been at the forefront of applying social network analysis in crime prevention. In this webinar, Andrew Papachristos, Ph.D., a national expert and the research partner of the Chicago Police Department, and Captain Daniel Gerard of the Cincinnati Police Department will demonstrate how social network analysis is applied in the context of the group violence reduction strategy. Key issues addressed include: Mapping of group, gang and faction structures and relationships; designing surgically precise enforcement actions; expanding knowledge of group membership using commonly available administrative data; identifying the most influential group members for taking antiviolence messages back to affiliates. Click here for the webinar's PowerPoint.

Chicago Violence Reduction Strategy: Applications of Social Network Analysis (2011)
Social network analysis is an integral part of Chicago's Violence Reduction Strategy (VRS). It is used to expand and improve the police department's intelligence on gangs, groups and local gang factions; to identify the most socially connected group and gang members to take the VRS anti-violence message back to their associates; and to assess the impact of law enforcement efforts on groups or gangs. This document outlines three examples of social network analysis as a tool to narrowly and effectively focus law enforcement resources on group violence.

Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence: Home/Street Visits (2011) 
A report about the groundbreaking home/street visits approach developed by the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) to keep its anti-violence message "fresh" in between its formal court house call-ins. The CIRV team identifies key impact players within groups active in crime hot-spots, meets with them face-to-face at their homes or in the streets, and delivers the message in a way that has led to substantial reductions in shootings around the city.

Webinar: Communicating with Offenders—Innovative Notification Strategies (2010)
This webinar focuses on innovative techniques for communicating key messages to offenders, potential offenders and affected communities as part of the National Network's group violence reduction and drug market strategies. Key issues include: Best practices in the "classic" call-in format; Voluntary call-ins for gang members; Home visits with impact players; Custom legal assessments; Prison call-ins; The use of "influentials" in both strategies; Emphasizing legitimacy in the call-in; Use of social network analysis. Click here for the webinar's PowerPoint.

Practice Brief: Group Enforcement Actions and Talking Points (2010)
This brief explores the role and purpose of demonstration, and subsequent, group enforcement actions ("crackdowns") associated with the law enforcement component of the group violence reduction strategy, including talking points for presenting these actions within actual call-ins/notification meetings with group and gang members.

Integrating and Evaluating Multiple PSN Strategies in Chicago (2009)
This PowerPoint presentation summarizes findings from an evaluation of the impact of Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) initiatives on neighborhood level crime rates in Chicago. Several PSN interventions were found to be associated with greater declines of homicide in the treatment neighborhoods compared to the control neighborhoods. Out of four interventions analyzed, the largest effect was associated with the offender notifications that stress individual deterrence, normative change in offender behavior, and increasing views on legitimacy and procedural justice.

Building Collaborative Violent Crime Task Force Structures (2009)
This PowerPoint presentation, by Robert A.J. Lang, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, and Jodi A. Ramirez, Law Enforcement Coordinator/Program Manager of Project Safe Cabarrus, sets out how to create the partnerships and agency structures necessary to successfully implement and sustain the group violence strategy. It includes guidelines on how best to overcome common institutional barriers as well as best practices for sustaining the initiative.

Project Safe Cabarraus – Program Manager Position (2009)
The document provides a description of the Project Manager position in this initiative. The Project Manager is responsible for coordinating community-wide resources, agencies, and committees as part of the federally funded Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) initiative. PSN is based in part on the National Network's group violence strategy.

Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) – Organizational Structure, Processes and Outcomes (2009)
This PowerPoint presentation, by CIRV Executive Director Greg Baker, provides an outline of the structure, processes and outcomes of the initiative, aimed at reducing gun violence and homicides in Cincinnati.

Controlling Gang Violence in High Point – High Point Police Department (2008)
This PowerPoint presentation by the High Point Police Department includes an outline of the theory underlying the group violence strategy, a step-by-step implementation guide, a link analysis of the groups engaged in violent crime in High Point, and details of the department's organizational realignment to more effectively support its mission of crime reduction.