[Jeffrey] Butts is a research professor at the John John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He said prevention efforts have focused on youth intervention and economic disparity. "That was all designed for a pre-pandemic world," Butts said. "An erosion of civilization happened with the pandemic. It seemed like society was coming apart. People were scared."
Republicans Insist Most Gun Violence Happens in Democratic Cities – The Figures Tell a Different Story
Between 2008 and 2014, 21 of 33 states with sufficient gun violence data showed equal or greater gun violence in rural areas compared with large metro areas, according to an analysis from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice — even in favoured GOP punching bags like Californa and Illinois.
AP News — Gun Violence Leads Community Groups to Take Bolder Action
Jeffrey A. Butts, director of research at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and one of the authors of a recent review of community intervention programs, cautioned against drawing easy conclusions about the effectiveness of such intervention.
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.
Rochester City Newspaper — We’re Missing the Real Gun Violence Epidemic
[T]he science of preventing mass shootings isn't as developed as it is for everyday violence prevention, said Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
Newsweek Magazine — ‘Defund the Police’ Is Dead But Other Reform Efforts Thrive In U.S. Cities
"My main concern is that [politicians] don't care about the details, they just want to have a good sound bite and a good promotional campaign," says Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
NY Daily News — NYC Will Spend $9 Million on ‘Violence Interrupters’ to Curb Violence in City Schools
“If we don’t do this type of a program… the only thing we have is police and formal policies and protocols, and that’s no way to run a society,” said Jeffrey Butts, a professor at John Jay College who has studied the Cure Violence programs.
CNY Central — Onondaga County Considering “Violence Interrupter” Program, First of its Kind in Syracuse
Dr. Jeffrey Butts, the director of research at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has studied violence interruption programs at the national level. He explained that it's difficult to quantify just how effective these programs are, as violence interrupters in other cities primarily deal with trying to change the community culture through relationships to avoid violence.
CSM — CURBING CHICAGO CRIME, ONE JIGSAW CUT AT A TIME
“There’s a whole garden of approaches, with different styles and modalities and theories of change,” says Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. “What’s new, or seems new, is that we’ve reached the point that relying on law enforcement for all of our public safety problems became too obviously problematic.”
CONCEPTUALIZATION, IMPLEMENTATION, AND MANAGEMENT OF THE NEW YORK CITY MAYOR’S ACTION PLAN FOR NEIGHBORHOOD SAFETY
New York City officials responded to adverse conditions in NYCHA developments by launching the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety in 2014. The initiative was designed to enhance the social and physical environment of housing developments in ways that improve public safety.
Louisville Courier Journal — Louisville is Spending Millions to Stop Gun Violence Before it Starts. Here’s How it Works.
Jeffrey Butts, director of the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, is evaluating two crime reduction initiatives at the behest of New York City, which has been investing in a targeted focus on people involved in gun violence. They found the organizations funded through the city’s Office of Criminal Justice "don’t have enough information" because programs "aren’t asked to generate or collect data." "Everyone is running around doing what they think is right,” he said. “Every neighborhood says they know their people, their guys, their culture. But that makes it impossible to say whether the program itself is responsible for improvements in public safety.”
NJ Spotlight News — New Jersey PBS
Jeffrey Butts interviewed as part of a story covering the release of a new report from New Jersey Policy Perspective.
WYPR Midday — Do Violence Interruption Programs Work? Some Critical Perspectives
Jeffrey Butts joins Amos Gelb and LaTrina Antoine with WYRP host Tom Hall in a discussion about the effectiveness of violence interruption programs.
Philly Doesn’t Need to Reinvent the Wheel to Reduce Homicides | Opinion
I often wonder, how did we get here — ending August with 357 homicides, on track to be our deadliest year recorded for shooting deaths?... Other cities, like New York and Oakland, Calif., have been where we are today but made improvements. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. A report published last year by John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s Research and Evaluation Center, authored by a diverse group of academic consultants, lays out a framework for action I believe we can apply in Philadelphia.
The Evidence for Violence Interrupters Doesn’t Support the Hype
“The evidence is mixed,” Butts, who led the 2015 review and subsequent research on interrupters, said. “We need to do more studies.”
Groups Arise, Spurred by Minneapolis Gun Violence, to Enact Early Interventions
Jeffrey Butts said that while he is encouraged by1 the Biden administration's public commitment to gun violence research, long hobbled by years of underfunding at the federal level, more attention needs to be paid to community-based programs that don't rely on police intervention.
The Matt McNeil Show — AM950 Minneapolis
Interview on the Matt McNeil Show in Minneapolis.
Univision — Cuomo Declara una Emergencia por la Violencia Armada en Nueva York
Jeffrey Butts interviewed as part of a story about the New York Governor's announcement of gun violence prevention initiatives.
CNN — US LAW ENFORCEMENT ‘VERY NERVOUS’ ABOUT PROACTIVE POLICING AS GUN VIOLENCE SOARS
"I'm an older white guy. I'm going to stop, I don't feel threatened," said Jeffrey Butts, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "There are people whose rational expectation is that (the stop) puts them in danger. They're going to have different response. It's amazing to me that we haven't confronted that and individual police officers don't think about that. They're just shocked and angered by someone daring to not comply."
Reducing Violence Without Police: A Review of Research Evidence
Arnold Ventures asked the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to review and summarize the research evidence for policies and programs that reduce community violence without relying on police.
Fox News – Alternative Policing: NYC Mayor de Blasio Funding “Violence Interrupters”
Jeffrey Butts interviewed for this story on Fox News, July 30, 2020.
Building the Evidence Base for Community-Based Violence Reduction
Arnold Ventures asked the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice to review and summarize research on policies and programs known to reduce community violence without relying on police.
Injustice Watch— City Watchdog: Juvenile Diversion Program has Failed to Meet Goals
“It makes me sad to see that some of the issues we identified ten years ago are still hindering the effectiveness of the place,” said Jeffrey Butts, a criminologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, who conducted the earlier evaluation.
Public Safety Trends in MAP Communities and Matched Comparison Areas
Was the presence of the MAP initiative in some NYCHA developments associated with greater improvements in crime and victimization outcomes compared with the same outcomes in NYCHA developments not involved in MAP? The results presented here do not answer the question in full, but they offer an early look at efforts by the research team to generate more precise answers. Additional analyses are needed to rule out competing explanations and to examine the complex series of relationships among all the study’s variables. Based on the preliminary findings in this report, however, the results of MAP to date may be considered promising.
Nashville Tennessean—Violent Crime on the Rise as Nashville Grows, but East Nashville Bucks the Trend
Another explanation could be an affordable housing crisis exacerbated by Nashville's booming economy, said Jeffrey Butts, the director of the Research & Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This can be particularly true for some neighborhoods. “The social stresses of shared housing and multifamily housing increase the chances that adolescents become frustrated and alienated," Butts said, creating an environment conducive to more crime.
Jeffrey Butts 