June 2018  |  John Jay College of Criminal Justice  

When a parent looks down at their newborn child, they’re filled with hope. A hope that if this child works hard in life, he’ll be successful. It doesn’t matter where he was born, how much his parents make, or his ethnicity. That hope is there. It’s a hope we pride ourselves on as a nation—we’re the “Land of Opportunity.” But in today’s America—where many black and brown children are often looked at with more suspicion and less empathy—we have to start asking ourselves a tough question: Do we give every child the same opportunities?

Tags:

June 2018  |  BBC  

In a bid to regain the trust of the public and reform their profession, more working police officers are learning to do their own research. Meet the police pracademics.

Tags:

June 2018  |  ABC News  

In order for any “zero-tolerance” policy to take effect and stop people from committing crimes, the criminals have to know that such uniform consequences are handed out, David Kennedy, a criminal justice professor at John Jay College, told ABC News.

“If zero-tolerance or any other law enforcement policy is designed to deter than it can’t possibly work until people know that that’s what’s waiting for them,” said Kennedy, who also heads the school’s center for study on violence prevention, called the National Network for Safe Communities.

Tags:

June 2018  |  New Haven Register  

City police Lts. John Healy and David Zanelli are trying to open a dialogue with the communities they serve.

Healy and Zanelli are district managers for the Dwight/Chapel and Fair Haven districts, respectively, who engaged with residents in an event this week in an effort to build bridges between two communities often at odds. It was held by Project Longevity New Haven and the Urban League of Southern Connecticut’s New Haven office.

Tags: New Haven Group Violence Intervention

June 2018  |  The Advocate  

With the arrival of summer's notorious bloody months and the now-defunct anti-violence initiative BRAVE in the rear-view mirror, Baton Rouge's law enforcement officials are embracing a new method for violence intervention: showing up unannounced to the homes of those they believe are linked to the violence.  

These home visits, coined "custom notifications" by researchers with the National Network for Safe Communities based in New York, are set up to demonstrate to these people — on a very personal level — that law enforcement is aware of their ties to potential violence, to warn them of the consequences of such violence and to offer them support if they choose a different path, said Baton Rouge Police Deputy Chief Herbert "Tweety" Anny. 

Tags: Baton Rouge Group Violence Intervention Custom Notifications

June 2018  |  The Toronto Star  

Community outreach programs were part of the successful Operation Ceasefire in Boston, where police teamed up with religious ministers and social activists to engage with at-risk youth and gang members.

The project, implemented between 1996 and 2000, was credited for a decline of 63 per cent among youth murders in Boston, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The model has since been replicated in other jurisdictions across the United States and Canada.

Tags: Group Violence Intervention