Violence

This program targets behavior changes in men who have committed a domestic violence offense, to reduce their risk of reoffending. The program is rated Promising. Men in the treatment group had statistically significant reductions in their rate of reconvictions and time to both their first violent and general reconvictions, compared with men in the control group. There were no statistically significant differences between groups in general or domestic violence reoffending within 12 months.

This was a focused deterrence intervention designed to reduce the presence of gun violence and gang activity. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in confirmed shots fired, residents’ reports of hearing gunshots, and residents’ reports of seeing gang activity. However, there was no statistically significant impact on calls for service for shots fired.

This is a focused deterrence police strategy that was designed to reduce gang- and group-related violence in Detroit, Mich. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences found for weapons arrests or shooting victimizations for participants in two age groups (15–24 and 25–34). The program did show a statistically significant reduction in all arrests and violent arrests for individuals who attended the Detroit Ceasefire call-in meetings.

This was a focused deterrence violence-reduction strategy involving enforcement and services to targeted individuals to address gun and gang violence. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions in community-level criminal shootings in treated areas, compared with matched comparison areas, and in shootings around treated gang territories, compared with areas around matched comparison gang territories, at 2 years’ postimplementation.

This program combines deterrence and rehabilitation methods to reduce recidivism of persons convicted of operating while intoxicated (OWI) offenses. Services include intensive supervision, educational programming, and treatment options. The program is rated Promising. The treatment group had statistically significantly fewer convictions, incarcerations, and subsequent days incarcerated, compared with the comparison group. There were no statistically significant differences in OWI recidivism.

This is a program for young women in nonemergency health centers in Sweden. It involves routine inquiry about their experiences with violence victimization and offers empowerment strategies for victimized women. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups in self-reported measures of physical violence, sexual violence (touch or penetration), and emotional violence at the 12-month follow-up.

This is a focused-deterrence group violence reduction strategy (GVRS) designed to reduce or control gun violence in Oakland, Calif. The program is rated Effective. The intervention was shown to reduce total shootings, gang-involved shootings, suspected gang-involved shootings, and gang shooting victimizations in treatment block groups relative to matched comparison block groups. These differences were all statistically significant.

This program used conditioning methods to change the way at-risk adolescents implicitly think about violence. The goal was to train participants to associate violence with negative, instead of positive, objects or ideas. The program is rated Promising. Adolescents who received evaluative conditioning demonstrated a statistically significant increase in negative implicit attitudes toward violence, compared with the control group.

This is a focused deterrence intervention that uses a data-driven approach to reduce shootings in Chicago, IL by identifying persons who are responsible for a disproportionate share of shootings and delivering a “don’t shoot” message. The program is rated No Effects. The preponderance of the evidence suggests that the strategy had no impact on shooting behaviors in the year after the call-ins, but did have a statistically significant impact on the time until a shooting incident occurred.

This is a focused deterrence violence-reduction strategy. The goal was to lower the city’s exposure to violent crime, including reducing the numbers of homicides and aggravated assaults committed by chronic violent individuals operating within organized groups and other social networks. The program is rated No Effects. Two years postimplementation, there was no statistically significant impact on homicides, group-member-involved homicides, and aggravated assaults.

This was a residential treatment program that targeted individuals who committed multiple driving-under-the-influence (DUI) offenses. The program combined educational components with individualized treatment and therapy to address substance use. The program is rated Promising. The treatment group was statistically significantly less likely than the comparison group to be arrested for any new offense and specifically for a DUI offense, but not for committing an alcohol-related offense.

This focused deterrence strategy in New Orleans, Louisiana, aims to reduce gang violence and homicide. The program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions found in overall homicide, firearm-related homicide, gang member-involved homicide, and firearm assault from the pretest to the posttest period. Further, New Orleans showed significantly decreased homicide rates after the program was implemented, compared with 14 cities with similar violent crime rates.

This is a school-based program on anger and aggression management for children and adolescents, especially those at risk for academic and behavioral problems. The program is designed to teach youth about emotions and help them recognize alternatives to violent behavior and aggressive responses. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences between the treatment and comparison groups in anger control, state anger, or trait anger, at the 8-week follow up.

This program comprises a violence prevention curriculum, which is designed to assist youth in detention to overcome obstacles such as gangs, violence, crime, and substance abuse. The program is rated Effective. Treatment group youth who participated in the program had lower rates of recidivism and took a longer amount of time to recidivate, compared with control group youth, at the 1-year follow up. These differences were statistically significant.

This is a school-based intervention designed to reduce violence and improve interpersonal behavior in youth. The program is rated Promising. Participants showed a statistically significant positive effect knowledge of psychosocial skills and fewer self-reported and teacher-reported behavior problems, disciplinary incidents, conflict mediation referrals, and suspensions, compared with the control group. However, there was no statistically significant effect on attitudes toward guns and violence.

This is a school-based program designed to improve conflict resolution in children. The program is rated Promising. Participants had a statistically significant lower level of aggressive interpersonal negotiation strategies, conduct problems, aggressive behavior, hostile attribution bias, and depressive symptoms, and a higher level of competent negotiation strategies and prosocial behavior, compared with nonparticipants. There was no statistically significant difference in aggressive fantasies.

This is a prevention program for elementary school students, which is designed to reduce aggressive and violent behavior. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups in aggressive behavior, rule-breaking behavior, social problems, or attention problems.

This is a comprehensive gang violence reduction program designed for the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. The program is rated Promising. Treatment group youth who participated in the program had statistically significant reductions in total violent crime, serious violent crime, and drug crime arrests, compared with control group youth. However, there was no statistically significant difference in property crime arrests or total arrests.

This is an early childhood curriculum designed to increase social-emotional competence and coping skills in young children. The program is rated Promising. Children in the intervention group demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in social-emotional competence and positive coping skills and fewer problem behaviors, compared with children in the control group.

This is a cognitive–behavioral counseling program specifically designed for African American men arrested for domestic violence. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences between the treatment and control groups in reassault rates. However, treatment group participants were statistically significantly more likely to be rearrested for domestic violence, compared with control group participants who received conventional counseling.

This is a problem-solving police strategy, which was designed to reduce gang violence, illegal gun possession, and gun violence in communities in Boston, Mass. The program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions in youth homicide, citywide gun assaults, calls for service, and recovered new guns following implementation of the intervention.

A violence prevention program that uses a public health approach, using trained street violence interrupters and outreach workers, public education campaigns, and community mobilization to reduce shootings and killings. This program is rated Promising. The program was associated with significant reductions in shootings, killings, and retaliatory homicides and also appeared to make shooting hot spots cooler in some neighborhoods but not others.

This violence prevention program seeks to reduce negative child behavior for school-aged children. The program is rated No Effects. Overall, there were no differences on teacher and student reported aggression in students. The studies also found mixed statistically significant differences among age groups with students in grades 3-5 displaying less aggressive behavior, but also lower prosocial behavior. The evidence suggests the program did not have the intended effect on students.

This is a family therapy program designed to reduce the effects of child abuse. The program is rated Promising. There were statistically significant reductions in family conflict, parent-child violence, physical punishment, and child abuse risk, and improvements in discipline, cohesion, and child acceptance. There were also statistically significant reductions in child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, there were no significant differences between groups in re-abuse rates.

This is a policing program that targeted high-risk persons who chronically commit offenses to reduce gun violence in Indianapolis, Ind. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in the number of average monthly homicides and gang-related homicides in Indianapolis, in the 2 years following the implementation of the program.

This is a focused-deterrence policing initiative designed to reduce gun homicide in Stockton, Calif., by providing gang-involved youth with positive alternatives to violence. The program is rated Promising. The intervention was associated with a statistically significant 42 percent decrease in the monthly number of gun homicides, compared with pre-intervention trends.

This was a policing initiative that targeted specific gangs in the Hollenbeck area of Los Angeles, California, through aggressive enforcement and problem-oriented policing. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in overall violent crimes in targeted blocks, compared with matched comparison blocks. However, there was no statistically significant effect on gang crimes or gun crimes.

This is a program comprised of a 35-minute therapy session for adolescents who received care in emergency rooms, designed to reduce subsequent violent behavior and alcohol use. The program is rated No Effects. The intervention groups showed statistically significant improvements on attitudinal measures of violence and alcohol use, compared with the control group; however, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups in behavior changes related to alcohol or violence.

This is a cognitive-behavioral therapy group intervention designed to reduce children’s symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression caused by exposure to violence. The program is rated Effective. Intervention group participants showed statistically significant reductions in depressive and PTSD symptoms, compared with control group participants, at the 3-month follow up. However, there were no statistically significant impacts on classroom behavior problems.