Operation Ceasefire

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Operation Ceasefire is a youth gun violence intervention strategy, first implemented in 1995 in Boston.

Contents

[edit] Boston

Violence was particularly concentrated in poor, inner-city neighborhoods including Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.[1] There were 22 youths (under age 24) killed in Boston in 1987, with that figure rising to 73 in 1990.[1] Operation Ceasefire entailed a problem-oriented policing approach, and focused on specific places that were crime hot spots. Particular focus was placed on two elements of the gun violence problem, including illicit gun trafficking[2] and gang violence.[1]

Within two years of implementing Operation Ceasefire in Boston, the number of youth homicides dropped to ten, with only one handgun-related youth homicide occurring in 1999 and 2000.[3]

[edit] Other cities

The Operation Ceasefire strategy has since been replicated in other cities, including Los Angeles.[4]

[edit] Guns-for-tickets

Operation Ceasefire is also the name for a guns-for-tickets exchange program that was once run by the Denver Police Department, in conjunction with the Denver Nuggets[5], Colorado Rockies, and Denver Broncos.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Kennedy, David M., Anthony A. Braga, Anne M. Piehl (2001). Reducing Gun Violence: The Boston Gun Project's Operation Ceasefire.
  2. ^ Braga, Anthony A., Glenn L. Pierce (2005). "Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets in Boston: The Effects of Operation Ceasefire on the Supply of New Handguns to Criminals". Criminology & Public Policy 4(4). NCJ 212303.
  3. ^ Rushefsky, Mark E. (2002). “Criminal Justice: To Ensure Domestic Tranquility (Chapter 7)”, Public Policy in the United States: At the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century. M.E. Sharpe, Inc..
  4. ^ National Institute of Justice (February 2005). Research Report: Reducing Gun Violence - Operation Ceasefire in Los Angeles.
  5. ^ Boeck, Greg. "Nuggets' Ellis makes mark with little fanfare", USA Today, October 14, 1993.
  6. ^ "Bengals, Bucs protest ruling", USA Today, December 16, 1993.