Putting an end to violence

Violence is growing in the Queen City, and university and Cincinnati officials are working to make the city and the campus more safe and secure for students by targeting and tracking individuals and groups known by police to commit violent crimes.

The College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services and the UC Policing Institute are collaborating with Cincinnati officials in the anti-crime program.

"Cincinnati is the 16th most dangerous place to live [in the United States,]" said David Crowley, the city's vice mayor, during a Jan. 29 forum about violence at the Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Robin Engel, director of the UC Policing Institute, said she is concerned crime will spread from Over-the-Rhine to UC.

"As the city cleans up Over the Rhine crime is spreading and UC is a big target," Engel said.

Engel said violent offenders in Cincinnati differ from gang members in other cities.

"In Cincinnati, there are groups of guys that hang out, it's more loose knit than L.A. and Chicago gangs," Engel said. "We know of 1,000 individuals who are chronic, high-risk violent offenders; 650 of those individuals we know by name."

These individuals have been victims or suspects in 72 percent of homicides that have occurred in the past few years, Engel said.

Twenty percent of these individuals are on probation.

UC is a large target for robberies, and Cincinnati police are working with campus law enforcement officers to teach students how to avoid becoming victims of crime, Engel said.

Faculty and doctoral students from the College of Education, Criminal Justice and Human Services are currently working on a robbery study, which will help in designing a program to counter robberies on campus, Engel said.

Engel said the program has brought together officials from many different disciplines. "We have teams from law enforcement, social services and the community working together," Engel said. "We have law enforcement agencies [collaborating] that don't typically work together.

When homicides occur, the police focus on the perpetrators within the group, regardless of whether or not they are part of the homicide. Using 24-hour surveillance, police wait for the individuals to participate in criminal activity and then arrest seeking a maximum sentence, Engel said.

The Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence program, or CIRV, is also designed to help people involved in criminal activity to change their lifestyle, and program members want to send a message that counters the peer pressure of violence, Engel said.

"If you continue to [engage in violent crimes] we will hammer you as hard as we can," Engel said.

CIRV does more than merely track offenders; in addition, the program uses former violent offenders to help people find jobs and escape their cycles of violence. Since its inception, 150 individuals have asked for help from the program, Engel said.

CIRV is based on the Boston Gun Project, an initiative that reduced Boston's homicide rates during the later half of the '90s.

Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith, a nationally recognized health leader and forum speaker, discussed the Boston Gun Project, and the strategies Boston employed a decade ago for preventing violence.

Boston's homicide rates increased following the dissolution of the project. CIRV, however, is institutionalized, so it won't fall apart in the event current members leave the program, Engel said. Procter & Gamble executives taught CIRV members business-like strategies to sustain and ensure the success of the program, according to Engel.

Prothrow-Stith concentrated on violence being cultural. The media and culture encourage violence, Prothrow-Stith said.

A presentation showed statistics of an increase in violence among females. Prothrow-Stith asked the audience to recognize what has caused this increase.

"We have been marketing and selling and advocating violence to females for decades as we have been advertising to males for centuries," Prothrow-Stith said.

Typically girls were victimized and then internally hurting themselves. Now a change in culture has shifted the curve and females are acting out externally, Prothrow-Stith said.

Prothrow-Stith used the cultural change of smoking over the decades as a reference of how to diminish a positive outlook on violence in our culture.

There was a time when smoking was glamorous and popular, when newscasters would smoke while delivering the news, but that has all changed because we began dealing with the problem of smoking upfront and working to prevent it, Prothrow-Stith said.

"We ask police to respond aggressively when violence occurs, that's not really prevention," Prothrow-Stith said.

City Statistics

-Cincinnati is the 16th most dangerous place in the United States.

-The UC Policing Institute is able to identify 650 of 1,000 chronic, high-risk offenders in the Cincinnati area.

-Within the past few years, these offenders have been victims or suspects in 72 percent of homicides.

-Twenty percent of these offenders are also on probation.

- According to the UC Policing Institute