ST. LOUIS 鈥 A city 鈥渧iolence interruption鈥 program likely helped reduce violent gun crimes in only one of three areas of 狐狸视频 in which it operated, a newly released study concluded.
The city-funded analysis by Washington University鈥檚 Institute for Public Health said the Cure Violence effort had a significant positive effect only in the program site centered on the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood on the North Side.
The study said there is no evidence that it had a major impact in the other sites concentrated in the Walnut Park area of the North Side and the Dutchtown area in the south part of the city.
The researchers noted that rates of gun violence had dropped in all three Cure Violence sites since the program began in 2020 and in the city as a whole.
People are also reading…
But only in the Wells-Goodfellow area was the decline much larger than in similar areas selected for comparison purposes.
鈥淲e estimate that the CV program prevented at least 12 incidents of gun violence 鈥 over 36 months, compared to what would have happened without the program鈥 in the Wells-Goodfellow area, the study said.
Under the program, pioneered by the Chicago-based Cure Violence nonprofit, people were trained from areas affected by violence to mediate conflicts, discourage retaliatory shootings and work to change the culture in their communities.
The city started its program in June 2020 under then-Mayor Lyda Krewson in the Wells-Goodfellow area; that effort also included part of the nearby Hamilton Heights neighborhood.
In November 2020, the Dutchtown part of the program began, also including parts of the Mount Pleasant and Gravois Park neighborhoods. A third site in Walnut Park was launched in January 2021.
The report, released Friday by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones鈥 office, also said researchers could find no changes in community attitudes and norms in the affected areas that they could directly attribute to the Cure Violence intervention.
In another finding, researchers said Cure Violence staffers were able to successfully identify and interrupt potentially violent conflicts and treat high-risk people but 鈥渇aced challenges such as limited staff capacity and lack of resources.鈥
The report also said interviews with community members showed an overall lack of awareness of the program outside of business owners and employees.
The report covered the period from September 2021 to June of this year. Researchers said the report鈥檚 鈥渃onclusiveness鈥 was hindered by a 15-month delay in the study鈥檚 start and the city鈥檚 reduction of funding that resulted in cutting the period covered by the study from three years to 22 months.
An earlier analysis of the program, released in early 2022 by University of Missouri-狐狸视频 criminologist Rick Rosenfeld, also had raised questions about its effectiveness.
Using city police crime totals, Rosenfeld found that the decline in homicides and gun assaults in Cure Violence areas was no greater than the reductions in neighborhoods with comparable demographics but lacking the program.
The city contracted with the nonprofit Employment Connection and the Urban League of Metropolitan 狐狸视频 to conduct the program. The city recently switched to a new contractor for its violence interruption program, Mission 狐狸视频.
Live Free USA will provide technical assistance, replacing Cure Violence, which city officials said didn鈥檛 apply to continue.
Wilford Pinkney, who heads the city鈥檚 Office of Violence Prevention, has said the effectiveness of violence interruption programs can be difficult to quantify and that deterring a single shooting is a success.
Originally posted at 6:15 p.m. Friday.