
Group Violence Intervention Issue Brief
Serious violence in the United States is concentrated in historically disadvantaged communities of color, and particularly among young men in those communities. The Group Violence
Strategies for Change
“Social services cannot [reduce violence] alone. Community members cannot fight that battle alone…nor do I think police can. I think that we’ve got to work together.”
Reygan Harmon, Ceasefire Program
Director, Oakland Police Department
The Group Violence Intervention (GVI) reduces homicide and gun violence, minimizes harm to communities by replacing enforcement with deterrence, and fosters stronger relationships between law enforcement and the people they serve. National Network Executive Director David Kennedy and colleagues pioneered GVI’s evidence-based strategies with “Operation Ceasefire” in Boston during the 1990s. Subsequent GVI implementations across dozens of challenging cities, including Oakland, Chicago, Detroit, and New Orleans, have repeatedly demonstrated that violence can be dramatically reduced when community members join together with law enforcement and social service providers to focus a three-pronged antiviolence message on highly active street groups.
The GVI messages are simple: Community members with moral authority over group members deliver a credible moral message against violence. Law enforcement puts groups on prior notice about the consequences of further group-involved violence for the group as a whole. And support and outreach providers make a genuine offer of help for those who want it. A central method of communication is the call-in, a face-to-face meeting between group members and the strategy’s partners.
“I think the most important thing about the National Network and the focused deterrence strategy is that it’s a very powerful blend of a lot of the best of what we know about criminal justice today.”
Thomas Abt, Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard University
When these three elements are in place, and partners across community, law enforcement, and support and outreach providers can work together, GVI fosters internal social pressure within groups that deters violence, elevates clear community standards against violence, offers group members an “honorable exit” from committing acts of violence, provides a supported path for those who want to change, and reserves strategic, group-based sanctions only for situations where group-involved serious violence persists.
Group members
What are groups?
The term “group” refers to any social network whose members commit violent crimes together. This can include anything from chapters of organized national gangs with recognized symbols (such as the Gangster Disciples) to loose neighborhood crews with no hierarchy or business (such as a set that claims a particular block). All “gangs,” “posses,” “sets,” “crews,” “blocs,” and other associations are names for groups.
Serious violence in the United States is concentrated in historically disadvantaged communities of color, and particularly among young men in those communities. The Group Violence
A comprehensive guide to the National Network's Group Violence Intervention strategy. This guide covers all relevant steps to the strategy from initial planning and problem analysis to enforcement actions and call-in implementation, and further considers issues of maintenance, integrity, sustainability and accountability to offer interested parties a step-by-step guide to successfully implementing GVI in any jurisdiction.
This guide provides practical information about “custom notifications,” an independent element of GVI that enables quick, tactical, direct communication to particular group members. This publication presents the custom notifications process, explains its value within the broader strategy, details its use by several national practitioners, and encourages further development.
This white paper outlines a new “support and outreach” structure carefully tailored to the core street population, it's situation, and its needs.
This whitepaper is a high-level overview of street outreach and the role it plays in violence intervention work. The paper assesses existing social science literature that evaluates the efficacy of streetwork interventions and contextualizes streetwork among other components of the NNSC's Group Violence Intervention.
This guide begins with a brief description of the shooting scorecard concept and its links to problem analysis and performance measurement systems in police departments. It then presents the key steps in the process and associated data quality issues and then details the use of shooting scorecards by the Boston Police Department as an example of the practical applications of this approach.
Contact us to start a conversation about implementing the Group Violence Intervention in your community.
“The theory is that there is a small percentage of individuals committing the large amount of violent crime that is taking place in our community,”
The walks are just one way to get officers out of police cruisers and into neighborhoods on foot, where they can build relationships and a
I was encouraged to read two pages later the Dispatch article “Violence prevention initiative to focus on shooter,” about the violence prevention initiative involving criminologist
Gun violence is at an all-time high in Louisville. Not even halfway through November, we’ve had 143 homicides — 22 percent more than the previous annual
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For #GivingTuesday, please donate to NNSC and support the critical work to reduce violence and change policing across the country. https://t.co/aH8ZAtQS8w
Thursday 10/29 at 2PM EST: NNSC’s David Kennedy and Fatma Zahra will discuss how to re-imagine public safety as part of Everytown for Gun Safety's Mayors Against Illegal Guns University series. Register here: https://t.co/7tW5OAvHTp
NNSC executive director David Kennedy emphasizes his disgust with the Pasco County, Florida sheriff's abusive "policing" "strategy."
New Yorker article on the Biden candidacy reports David Kennedy arguing that new approaches to violence prevention should replace 1990s ideas of community policing.
https://t.co/BPE2LpAmka
Our GVI partners in South Bend, IN have created a video to answer the question, “Who is GVI?” See their answer here. https://t.co/D3aVK81EDw
Check out this panel. @DavidKennedyNYC will talk with @MsPackyetti, @NYPDFIRSTDEP, and @GBrowneMarshall in a discussion moderated by @JohnJayPres
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"In June, after Minneapolis City Council members announced their intention to dismantle their police department, they suggested they might invest more money in [NNSC's program]." https://t.co/7Vs3LxZq1S
Check out David Kennedy's piece on police violence at @NiskanenCenter
Today we had the opportunity to hear from project managers across the country about police legitimacy, structural racism, and community safety. Thank you to everyone who is showing up, having courageous conversations, and pushing for change.