Qualitative Evidence on the Implementation of Cure Violence in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

Violence is a significant social problem in many cities throughout the world. In seeking to prevent or control violence, communities have put in place a variety of interventions. Many of these rely on the formal criminal justice process to arrest, prosecute, and imprison offenders. However, formal social control is well known to be an incomplete solution to violence. As a result, some communities have experimented with community-based solutions. One such approach is Cure Violence, an initiative that treats violence as a public health issue. Based on methods used to prevent the spread of infectious disease, Cure Violence seeks to stop the spread of violence within communities. This study presents qualitative results on the implementation of Cure Violence in Trinidad and Tobago, a two-island nation in the southeastern Caribbean near Venezuela. We conducted 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews and two focus groups with a variety of stakeholders, including program staff, residents, family members of victims, and police. Our findings suggest that the implementation of Cure Violence in Trinidad and Tobago led to educational and employment support for community members and a reduction in violence, particularly retaliation killings in the target communities. Our results are useful for understanding the factors that shape the implementation of community-based violence reduction initiatives like Cure Violence.

Appendix. Semi-structured interview protocols

A: Interviews with program staff (supervisors, outreach workers, etc.)

• 1. Please describe the violence problem in the communities covered by Cure Violence.

• 2. Are there specific areas or places, or are there specific people who are at the root of the problem?

• 3. Are there other, more important problems in these communities?

• 4. What responses, if any, have been tried in the past to address violence in these communities? To what extent were these efforts successful?

• 5. What have you learned thus far about the violence problem in these communities and the intended response by Cure Violence

• 6. What short-term successes have you seen? Failures?

• 7. What’s working? What isn’t working?

• 8. How was the program originally conceived?

• 9. What specific intervention strategies were selected?

• 10. What rules or guidelines were established to select outreach workers and violence interrupters?

• 11. What initial training was provided? What about ongoing training?

• 12. What activities were first implemented?

• 13. Have things gone as planned? If not, what obstacles emerged and how were they handled?

• 14. What was the “dosage” of intervention activities (e.g. number and type of mentoring contacts, services needed, and services provided) provided to clients?

• 15. If there were gaps in service delivery, what were they and how were they addressed?

B: Additional questions for use during interviews with violence interrupters.

• 1. Please describe your own history of arrests/incarceration.

• 2. Please describe your own affiliation with gangs.

• 3. Please describe any previous experience with street outreach/mediation work.

• 4. What is your Cure Violence assignment area?

• 5. Please assess your current knowledge about your assigned area. Do you know it well? Do you know many law-abiding people in the area? Do you know the gangs and/or criminal offenders in the area well?

• 6. To what extent do you feel optimistic about your ability to reduce violence in your assigned area?

• 7. What people or institutions exist in your assigned area that can help play a role in reducing violence? Are these people or institutions playing an active role in violence reduction?

• 8. What people or institutions exist in your assigned area that may make it more difficult to reduce violence? Are these people or institutions standing in the way of the Cure Violence initiative?

• 9. Do you feel like you are in danger when carrying out your duties? If so, what do you do about it?

C: Interviews with community stakeholders.

• 1. Is there a particular Cure Violence community (or communities) in which you work or reside or that you know very well? Which ones?

• 2. What is your role in the community? What is your association with Cure Violence?

• 3. Please describe the violence problem in the community.

• 4. Are there specific areas or places, or are there specific people in the community who are at the root of the problem?

• 5. Are there other, more important problems in the community?

• 6. What responses, if any, have been tried in the past to address violence in the community? To what extent were these efforts successful?

• 7. What have you learned thus far about the violence problem in the community and the intended response by Cure Violence?

• 8. What short-term successes have you seen? Failures?

• 9. What’s working? What isn’t working?

• 10. If there have been gaps in service delivery by Cure Violence, what were they and how were they addressed?

• 11. To what extent do you feel optimistic about the ability of Cure Violence to reduce violence in the community?

• 12. What people or institutions exist in the community that can help play a role in reducing violence? Are these people or institutions playing an active role as Cure Violence partners?

• 13. What people or institutions exist in the community that may make it more difficult to reduce violence? Are these people or institutions standing in the way of the Cure Violence initiative?

D: Interviews with police officials.

• 1. To which unit, branch, or division in the Police Service are you assigned?

• 2. To what extent are you familiar with the Cure Violence initiative?

• 3. Is there a particular Cure Violence community (or communities) in which you work or reside or that you know very well? Which ones?

• 4. Please describe the violence problem in the community.

• 5. Are there specific areas or places, or are there specific people in the community who are at the root of the problem?

• 6. Are there other, more important problems in the community?

• 7. What responses, if any, have been tried in the past to address violence in the community? To what extent were these efforts successful?

• 8. What have you learned thus far about the violence problem in the community and the intended response by Cure Violence?

• 9. What short-term successes have you seen? Failures?

• 10. What’s working? What isn’t working?

• 11. If there have been gaps in service delivery by Cure Violence, what were they and how were they addressed?

• 12. To what extent do you feel optimistic about the ability of Cure Violence to reduce violence in the community?

• 13. What people or institutions exist in the community that can help play a role in reducing violence? Are these people or institutions playing an active role as Cure Violence partners?

• 14. What people or institutions exist in the community that may make it more difficult to reduce violence? Are these people or institutions standing in the way of the Cure Violence initiative?

• 15. How would you describe the relationship between the Police Service and the Cure Violence initiative? Would you describe it as a partnership? Which parts are working well and which ones can be improved?

E: Interviews with Cure Violence participants.

• 1. In which community do you live?

• 2. Do you work? If so, what kind of work do you do?

• 3. In what ways have you been involved with Cure Violence?

• 4. Please describe the violence problem in the community. What is causing the violence?

• 5. How much of the violence is gang-related? Drug-related?

• 6. Much of the violence involves guns. Is it easy to get a gun in the community? How much does it cost to rent a gun? To buy a gun?

• 7. Have you or people you care about been the victims of violence? What happened and why?

• 8. Do you think Cure Violence will be successful in reducing violence? Why?

• 9. What is Cure Violence doing well? What can be done better?

• 10. In what ways has Cure Violence influenced you?