Promising Strategies To Reduce Gun Violence - Office of Juvenile ...

Profile No. 2
Promising
Boston Strategy To Prevent Youth Violence—Boston, MA
Program Type or Federal Program Source:
A research and action project of comprehensive
gun violence reduction strategies;
National Institute of Justice.
Program Goal:
To reduce serious youth violence in Boston.
Specific Groups Targeted by the Strategy:
Youth 8-18 years old.
Geographical Area Targeted by the Strategy:
Boston, MA.
Evaluated by:
Kennedy School of Government, Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA.
Contact Information:
James Jordan and Gary French
Boston Police Department
1 Schroeder Plaza
Boston, MA 02120
Phone: 617–343–5096
David Kennedy
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617–495–5188
Years of Operation:
1995–present.
Starting in the early to mid-1990’s, Boston
embarked on a series of innovative public
safety strategies that focused on violent
youth and illicit gun markets. Using a
problem-solving approach, a broad coalition
of Federal, State, and local governmental
agencies, nonprofit community service
organizations, businesses, religious leaders,
parents, and resident stakeholders developed
several programs to address the escalating
number of juvenile homicides. Its
enforcement strategy largely consisted of
Operation Ceasefire (a gang violence abatement
strategy; see profile 21), the Boston
Gun Project (a gun suppression and interdiction
strategy; see profile 10), and Operation
Night Light (a police-probation
partnership; see profile 33), each of which is
described in detail below. In addition to
enforcement efforts, and in keeping with its
new neighborhood policing strategy, Boston
also employed numerous prevention and
intervention initiatives. Working with community
partners, the city built on existing
services in the communities to create a more
extensive and effective continuum of services.
It took approximately 2 years (from 1994 to
1996) for Boston to develop its strategic
plan, with hundreds of neighborhoods,
community-based programs, and neighborhood
groups mobilized and brought into the
process. During this same period, the Boston
Police Department was undergoing great
change in its neighborhood policing initiatives.
More than 400 participants in 16 teams
(roughly half police and half other stakeholders)
worked on the planning phases.
In July 1996, at about the same time that
Operation Ceasefire began to be implemented,
26 Promising Strategies To Reduce Gun Violence