Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of Baltimore’s Safe Streets Program on Gun Violence: A Replication of Chicago’s CeaseFire Program

  • Published:
Journal of Urban Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Chicago’s CeaseFire program is an evidence-based public health approach to preventing gun violence. Baltimore is one of many US cities attempting to replicate the program. We compared changes in the number of homicide and nonfatal shooting incidents per month in four intervention neighborhoods with changes in high-crime comparison areas (police posts) without the intervention, while controlling for several measures of police activity and baseline levels of homicide and nonfatal shootings. In South Baltimore there were large program-related reductions in homicide and nonfatal shooting incidents. Among three East Baltimore program sites, the program was associated with a reduction of homicides in one area, a reduction in nonfatal shootings in another area, and a simultaneous increase in homicides and decrease in nonfatal shootings in another area. In some instances, program effects extended to neighborhoods bordering the intervention areas. Program-related reductions in homicides appear to be linked with conflict mediations conducted by program outreach workers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 2.
FIGURE 3.
FIGURE 4.
FIGURE 5.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. National Center for injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query And Reporting System (WISQARS) fatal injury reports: leading causes of death reports. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; April, 2009.

  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web-based Injury Statistics Query And Reporting System (WISQARS) injury mortality reports. Atlanta; Accessed July 20, 2011.

  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS)—non-fatal injuries. http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html. Accessed July 20, 2011.

  4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Compressed Mortality File 1999–2007. CDC WONDER on-line database, compiled from compressed mortality file 1999–2007 Series 20 No. 2M, 2010. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/cmf-icd10.html on Oct 28, 2011.

  5. Fowler PJ, Tompsett CJ, Braciszewski JM, Jacques-Tiura AJ, Baltes BB. Community violence: a meta-analysis on the effect of exposure and mental health outcomes of children and adolescents. Dev Psychopathol. 2009; 21: 227–259.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Roman CG, Knight CR, Chalfin A, Popkin SJ. The relation of the perceived environment to fear, physical activity, and health in public housing developments: evidence from Chicago. J Public Health Policy. 2009; 30(Suppl 1): S286–S308.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Anderson E. The code of the street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. New York: WW Norton & Co; 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Wilkinson DL. Guns, violence, and identity among African American and Latino youth. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing; 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Rich JA, Stone DA. The experience of violent injury for young African American men: the meaning of being a sucker. J Gen Intern Med. 1996; 11(6): 77–82.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Koper CS, Mayo-Wison E. Police crackdowns on illegal gun carrying: a systematic review of their impact on gun crime. J Exp Criminol. 2006; 2: 227–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Braga AA, Kennedy DM, Waring EJ, Piehl AM. Problem-oriented policing, deterrence, and youth violence: an evaluation of Boston’s Operation Ceasefire. J Res Crime Delinq. 2001; 38: 195–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Corsaro N, McGarrell EF. Testing a promising homicide reduction strategy: reassessing the impact of the Indianapolis “pulling levers” intervention. J Exp Criminol. 2009; 5: 63–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Corsaro N, McGarrell EF. Reducing homicide risk in Indianapolis between 1997 and 2000. J Urban Health. 2010; 87: 851–864.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Papachristos A, Meares T, Fagan J. Attention felons: evaluating project safe neighborhoods in Chicago. J Empir Leg Stud. 2007; 4: 223–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Braga AA, McDevitt J, Pierce GL. Understanding and preventing gang violence: problem analysis and response development in Lowell, Massachusetts. Police Q. 2006; 9: 20–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Prothrow-Stith D, Spivak H. Murder is no accident: understanding and preventing youth violence in America. Josey-Bass; 2003.

  17. Chicago Project for Violence Prevention, www.ceasefirechicago.org.

  18. Skogan WG, Hartnett SM, Bump N, Dubois J. Evaluation of CeaseFire—Chicago. Evanston: Northwestern University; 2008.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Ransford C, Kane C, Slutkin G. CeaseFire Chicago: an analysis of the effects of a funding interruption on the CeaseFire intervention. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, Philadelphia, November 2009.

  20. Wilson JM, Chermak S. Community-driven violence reduction programs: examining Pittsburgh’s One Vision One Life. Criminol Public Policy. 2011; 10: 993–1027.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Ferrier M, Ludwig J. Crime policy and informal social control. Criminol Public Policy. 2011; 10: 1029–1036.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Fagan J, Wilkinson DL, Davies G. “Social contagion of violence.” In: Waldman, eds. The Cambridge handbook of violent behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2007.

  23. Cameron AC, Trivedi PK. Regression analysis of count data. Cambridge University Press; 1998.

  24. Zeger SL, Liang K-Y. Longitudinal data analysis for discrete and continuous outcomes. Biometrics. 1986; 42: 121–130.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Tauchen H. Estimating the supply of crime: recent advances. In: Benson BL, Zimmerman PR, eds. Handbook on the economics of crime. Northhampton: Edward Elgar Publishing; 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Anselin L. Local indicators of spatial association—LISA. Geogr Anal. 1995; 27(2): 93–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Fenton J, Calvert S. 18 shootings stem largely from drug feud, police say: two fatally shot, 16 wounded in shootings on day of mayhem on Baltimore’s east side. The Baltimore Sun; July 28, 2009.

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CE000728) and a contract with the Baltimore City Health Department.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Daniel W. Webster, Jennifer Mendel Whitehill & Jon S. Vernick

  2. Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Jennifer Mendel Whitehill

  3. Departments of Environmental Health Sciences and Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Frank C. Curriero

Authors
  1. Daniel W. Webster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jennifer Mendel Whitehill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jon S. Vernick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Frank C. Curriero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel W. Webster.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Webster, D.W., Whitehill, J.M., Vernick, J.S. et al. Effects of Baltimore’s Safe Streets Program on Gun Violence: A Replication of Chicago’s CeaseFire Program. J Urban Health 90, 27–40 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-012-9731-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11524-012-9731-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation