Interrupting Violence
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Chicago’s CeaseFire program is like many other community programs designed to reduce violence. But Chicago uses former gang members and released inmates as “violence interrupters.” Their job is to use their street cred to cool down a situation before the shooting starts.
This isn’t the standard approach, but it appears to be working, with the number of shooting deaths following in some neighborhoods. Can it work elsewhere?
KUOW’s Weekday explores the Ceasefire campaign, with the executive director of the program, Dr. Gary Slutkin, and Zale Hoddenbach, who is an interruptor.
