JeffreyButts Audio, Broadcast

Podcast — Are violence interrupters more effective than police?

Gun violence is a massive problem in American communities. And after decades of failed policies, some community members are taking matters in their own hands and working as violence interrupters. In this episode of Beyond Black History Month, we meet members of Save Our Streets, or SOS. We find out how some of the same people who once caused neighborhood violence are dedicating their lives to stopping it.

JeffreyButts Audio, Broadcast

NPR — Michigan School Shooter is 1 of Thousands of U.S. Juveniles Charged as Adults in 2021

"If it's just supposed to send a message to that kid and all other people that we take this seriously and we're not going to stand for this behavior, therefore we're punishing you, then it accomplishes that purpose." But Butts says if the idea is to improve public safety or prevent future crime, decades of research show that is rarely the result.

JeffreyButts Audio, Broadcast

New York Public Radio– The Docket: The Tessa Majors Case and the State of New York’s Juvenile Justice System

The Tessa Majors case is a test for New York's recently-enacted Raise The Age law, which barred the state from automatically prosecuting 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Jeffrey Butts, who leads John Jay College's Research and Evaluation Center, told Floyd that this is the exact kind of case that the law's critics could use as leverage to reverse it.

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WNYC — Waiting for Violence to Break Out

“We don’t divulge matters that we work hard on to the police, and the police know that about us,” Mitchell said. “We're not sharing information that may be helpful in some sort of investigation. That's not or role." That code of silence lead to the demise of a Cure Violence group in Chicago, according to Jeffrey Butts, director of the research and evaluation center at John Jay College. "The precinct can feel aggrieved to find out this whole episode of violence that just happened was known, that people knew that it was about to happen and no one told the police,” Butts said.

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Public Radio Special Report: A Look Inside Moriah Shock Prison

Even critics of [shock incarceration] agree that this kind of commitment among the staff is valuable. Jeffrey Butts directs the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College. Butts says that if the only contribution of this program is to make the staff focus on structure, and having a theory that they follow so that their behavior is consistent and they respond consistently to people and incidents as they come up, then this is preferable to a facility or correctional program with no structure and no plan. "But that does not mean that there is some magic potion that they’ve discovered," says Butts.

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National Public Radio — Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network

Today, we will talk to Laura Saunders, a child and adolescent psychologist from Hartford Hospital’s Institute of Living. She’ll tell us how violence affects the development of both children and their families. We’ll also talk with Jeffrey Butts, a researcher at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Lou Gilbert, the director of a Hartford program that works with children who’ve witnessed violence, as well as Robert Plant, a Department of Children and Families director of community services, who can talk about what that state organization is doing with this population.

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WHYY—Youth Courts and the Value of a Jury of Their Peers

Research shows that young people who participate in youth court or teen court programs may have lower rates of recidivism. Adults involved in the programs attribute much of their success to the influence of positive peer pressure and the value of giving young people a voice in the process. Joining Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coaneus to tell the story of youth courts are Jeffrey Butts of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who has evaluated teen court programs across the country; and attorney Gregg Volz, who has implemented school-based youth courts in Chester.

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WBEZ Chicago – New Study Examines Alternatives to Juvenile Detention

The number of kids sent to youth prison from Cook County declined dramatically between 1997 and 2004. According to a new report out today from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, that’s thanks to a cluster of reforms that divert youth away from pretrial detention and into more community-oriented forms of supervision. Jeffrey Butts is a research fellow at the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall Center for Children. He’s looked at the numbers behind the report, and done some crunching of his own. He says policy reforms are only part of the reason for the decrease.

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American Public Media – Crime and the Gap Between Rich and Poor

The FBI says violent crime rates are rising. The increase is occurring as the gap between rich and poor is the widest its been since World War II. Steve Henn looked into whether expanding economic inequality could be causing crime to increase. ...  But Criminologists say in some ways, this is all kind of predictable.  Jeffrey Butts:  "The transition zones between wealth and poverty are where the opportunities for crime are greatest."

JeffreyButts Audio, Broadcast

NPR – Have Girls Really Grown More Violent?

[T]here's been only a small increase in girls who commit an assault that involves a weapon or causes a serious injury. Jeffrey Butts of the Urban Institute says these facts challenge the idea that a change in girls' behavior is the major reason for the rise in arrests and detentions. "Behavior changes contribute somewhat to it, but very slightly," Butts says. "The largest reason for the change is that the juvenile justice system itself is becoming less paternalistic -- meaning that police officers, prosecutors, judges are less likely to treat someone differently because she's female than they may have 20 to 30 years ago."