My contributions to a discussion at Yale Law School stressed the need to build community violence prevention with credible evidence rather than progressive rhetoric. Continue reading Community Safety as a Public Health Issue: Yale Law School
The Research and Evaluation Center partnered with the National League of Cities and the Urban Institute to support the efforts of six cities as they reimagine their approach to public safety. Continue reading Municipalities Reimagining Public Safety
“Crime is constantly fluctuating,” said Dr. Jeffrey Butts, a research professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in a recent phone interview. “The numbers go up and they go down,” he said, and looking at short-term changes doesn’t reflect meaningful trends. “You never understand the history of something until you can look at it with a little bit of distance.” Continue reading West Side Rag — Crime On The Upper West Side Over the Decades
[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.” Continue reading Cincinnati Enquirer — Bystanders in a Crowd: Main Street Shooting Among Many Similar Incidents
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. Continue reading Republicans Insist Most Gun Violence Happens in Democratic Cities – The Figures Tell a Different Story
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. Continue reading AP News — Gun Violence Leads Community Groups to Take Bolder Action
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. Continue reading Podcast — Are violence interrupters more effective than police?
[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. Continue reading Rochester City Newspaper — We’re Missing the Real Gun Violence Epidemic
“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. Continue reading Newsweek Magazine — ‘Defund the Police’ Is Dead But Other Reform Efforts Thrive In U.S. Cities
“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. Continue reading NY Daily News — NYC Will Spend $9 Million on ‘Violence Interrupters’ to Curb Violence in City Schools
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. Continue reading CNY Central — Onondaga County Considering “Violence Interrupter” Program, First of its Kind in Syracuse
“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.” Continue reading CSM — CURBING CHICAGO CRIME, ONE JIGSAW CUT AT A TIME
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. Continue reading Conceptualization, Implementation, and Management of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety
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.” Continue reading Louisville Courier Journal — Louisville is Spending Millions to Stop Gun Violence Before it Starts. Here’s How it Works.
Jeffrey Butts interviewed as part of a story covering the release of a new report from New Jersey Policy Perspective. Continue reading NJ Spotlight News — New Jersey PBS
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