A Must-Read Book for Creating Cities of Peace

Thomas Abt. Bleeding Out: the Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence--and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets (New York: Basic Books, 2019). Review by Dennis Nordmoe, July 9, 2019.

This book builds on the research to date on urban violence, but it is a different kind of book, one that focuses on the laying out clearly what an evidence-based plan of action would look like, one that would reduce urban homicides by 10% a year in cities where it is applied through relatively inexpensive strategies that are “focused, balanced and fair.”

The author, Thomas Abt, through his senior criminal justice management roles in the Obama and Cuomo administrations, and now as Senior Research Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has been immersed in the research and the practicalities of how to reduce lethal violence in America. This book is the outcome of decades of study and experience by a person with a passionate commitment to reducing lethal violence, the form of crime which sets America apart from all other nations of wealth.

This book is designed to be a high level manual for action. I shall follow the author’s lead by providing a very practical outline of the content that I hope will demonstrate its potential value to readers with responsibilities in public policy and politics, criminal justice, social services and community development, as well as citizens at large who want to back effective means of reducing the social damage that violence brings, in particular to our nation’s cities.

Defining the problem: The problem that sets the USA apart from other nations is not crime in general. It is lethal violence. While this is most often discussed in terms of mass shootings, domestic violence, and suicide by gun, its most damaging form is deadly violence in public spaces in our cities. There, it is a “sticky” problem that is concentrated in a very few small areas within cities and among a small number of people. This is the most numerous and impactful form of lethal violence. How to reduce this is the focus of the book.

Why the public should be concerned: This problem is owned by the general public that has inherited both the benefits and liabilities of our unique history encompassing amazing accomplishments and also a dark side of slavery, discrimination and racism. It is unrealistic to expect that the consequences of that side of our history to disappear when the originating institutions and practices have ended. Abt quotes writer Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic, 2014): “It is as though we have run up a credit-card bill and, having pledged to charge no more, remain befuddled that the balance does not disappear.” (P. 177). Not only are there enormous economic burdens to society from lethal violence (ten million dollars or more for every homicide), but this is also the priority concern of the poorest and most vulnerable among us who suffer the most from its presence. Furthermore, although poverty is a causal contributor, it also is an element in our cities that causes people to stay in poverty.

How the problem can be reduced: That it can be reduced dramatically is abundantly documented by systemic research studies that will not be summarized here. Abt’s research-based formula at its highest level of abstraction directs us to solutions that are “focused, balanced, and fair.” If we want to reduce the carnage in American cities (and we should for both moral and economic reasons), we must start by focusing on the problem. Focus on lethal violence, not on crime, not on drugs, not on gangs, not on poverty or other global root causes.  [My own illustration of this point is that when one discovers the presence in one’s body of an environmentally caused malignant tumor, one makes haste to consult a surgeon, not an ecologist. When the immediate threat to life is under control, then attention turns to joining with those who are already fighting to save and improve the environment.[1] Then focus further.]

Where is problem occurring? (Blocks and addresses, not neighborhood descriptors.) Who is involved? (Names, not demographics.) What behaviors are specifically leading to violence? E.g., illegal carrying of guns (not mere possession); violent drug trafficking, not drug sales in general. What about the setting is contributing? (Specific decaying buildings? Hours and locations of alcohol sales? Streetlights out?) Develop specific strategies for each immediate contributing factor. Focus enforcement where data indicates that repetitions of violence are highly likely in connection with specific individuals, behaviors, and locations.

“Balanced” means responding with a combination of policing and social measures. Social measures should range from things that city departments can do, such as employment training that can be prioritized for specific persons at risk for violence, emergency relocation assistance, cognitive behavior training for “hot individuals,” and hot spot-focused community development. Look to proven programs such as Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) for additional strategies for reducing violence risk with “would be shooters.” Focused policing is essential to intervene with active dangerous criminals. Balance reduces social contributions to violence and keeps the community support engaged for the long haul as violence is reduced year by year.

“Fair” means that punishment is focused on actual crimes of violence, not code violations and minor infractions that burden the poor without actually reducing violence. It relates to the manner in which policing is conducted. It also means engaging both the subjects at risk and the general community in planning solutions.

Abt gives specific guidance for how communities will organize and manage their crime reduction campaigns to achieve actual reductions in lethal violence. The staffing and programming Abt envisions would cost about $30,000 per homicide. Thus, a community with 300 homicides per year should anticipate spending initially about nine million dollars per year on a violence reduction campaign. The ten million dollar benefit for each homicide prevented redounds to the benefit of the entire state, thus making the case for state engagement in funding the campaign.

How to get a strategy actually in place: Abt’s section on recommendations for the politics and managerial side of planning and implementation make clear that his experience in managing US and New York crime fighting programs has not been wasted. He has a concise chapter for that.

The benefits of violence reduction: Abt provides a moving chapter based on direct experiences with people engaged with their own redemption and the redemption of tragic events and dimensions of their families and neighborhoods. If the spiritual side of the book escaped notice elsewhere, it becomes unmistakable by its presence here. At the community level, reducing violence unlocks the potential of people to escape from poverty, and it frees up municipal resources to support improvements in opportunity and the quality of life for those in poverty.

Reviewer’s conclusion: If one is to read one book for guidance on reducing death by guns in America, this should be it.

 _______________________________________________________________________

Background on the author from the Harvard University Center for International Development website:

Thomas Abt is a Senior Research Fellow with the Center for International Development, where he leads CID’s Security and Development Seminar Series. He is also a member of the Campbell Collaboration Criminal Justice Steering Committee, member of the Advisory Board of the Police Executive Programme at the University of Cambridge, and a Senior Fellow with the Igarapé Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Both in the United States and globally, Abt writes, teaches, and studies the use of evidence-informed approaches to reduce urban violence, among other criminal justice topics. His forthcoming book, Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence - and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets, will be published by Basic Books in June 2019. His work is featured in major media outlets such as the New York Times, the Chicago-Sun Times, The Guardian, Vox, and National Public Radio.

Before joining Harvard, Abt served as Deputy Secretary for Public Safety to Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York, where he oversaw all criminal justice and homeland security agencies, including the Divisions of Corrections and Community Supervision, Criminal Justice Services, Homeland Security and Emergency Services, and the State Police. During his tenure, Abt led the development of New York’s GIVE (Gun-Involved Violence Elimination) Initiative, which employs evidence-informed, data-driven approaches to reduce gun violence.

Before his work in New York, Abt served as Chief of Staff to the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked with the nation’s principal criminal justice grant-making and research agencies to integrate evidence, policy, and practice. He played a lead role in establishing the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, a network of federal agencies and local communities working together to reduce youth and gang violence. Abt was also founding member of the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, a place-based development effort that was recognized by the Kennedy School as one of the Top 25 Innovations in Government for 2013.

Abt received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and a law degree with honors from the Georgetown University Law Center