Consider city violence a disease, prevent it?

If violence is a virus, can you monitor "sufferers" to prevent further infection?

The idea of tackling violent behavior like it is a health problem centers around the Cure Violence program, where "violence interrupters" attempt to stop the old phrase "violence breeds violence" from taking form.

Gary Slutkin runs the organization, now entering its 13th year, in cities around the world. After tracking the "patterns" of violent behavior -- which areas, where it is likely to strike next and who are the most 'contagious,' the epidemiologist's Cure Violence scheme has been able to reduce the rate of crimes including shootings and homicides.

Slutkin, who has worked with epidemics including cholera and AIDS, says that violence has the same basic characteristics as an infectious process. The basic premise of the scheme is to track down and monitor community members who are most likely to "infect" others with violence, and predict where 'outbreaks' may happen next -- and intervening before it does.

The most interesting aspect is the fact that the system works.

In Chicago, the Cure Violence model has cut down rates of violence in every neighborhood it operates in, and in some areas, retaliatory homicides have been reduced by 100 percent. Shootings and killings have also dropped. But what is it about interception and breaking up groups that prevents violence? Slutkin explained:

"When you start to do violence as a group, you start to justify it more. There are cortical mechanisms that try to deal with your cognitive dissonance, and you end up having brain disregulated towards using violence in the same way the intestine is disregulated by cholera."

Cities all over the world have implemented the program, including various areas in the United States, Iraq and Kenya.

Read More: Fast Co.Exist

Image credit: Westside Shooter

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com