Gang Violence Reduction in Syracuse
Building on the foundation of the gang assessment completed by the Institute in 2012, Institute researchers are working with partners in Syracuse on new initiatives designed to reduce gang violence in that city. In 2013, following several months of preparatory work, a focused deterrence initiative, Syracuse Truce, was launched. Syracuse Truce is based on the group violence reduction strategy pioneered in Boston as Operation Ceasefire in the 1990s and replicated since then in a number of cities, including Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Lowell (MA). Syracuse Truce has been partially supported by two grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), and with support from BJA and the Syracuse Police Department, the Institute has served as the Syracuse Truce research partner. In addition, the City of Syracuse received an award in late-2013 from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to support the implementation of OJJDP’s comprehensive gang model, on which the Institute serves as the research partner. The comprehensive gang model includes five core strategies: social intervention; opportunities provision; community mobilization; suppression; and organizational change and development. With oversight by a steering committee comprised of community leaders, Syracuse formed a multi-disciplinary intervention team to address the needs of high-risk, gang-involved youth; implemented a prevention initiative in local schools; hired a project director to mobilize community resources and facilitate organizational change as needed; and conducted targeted suppression and social control. Under the auspices of its sub-award, the Institute is monitoring implementation and impacts over the course of the funding period (through early-2017), conducting a process and outcome evaluation.