Cure Violence: An Adaptation in San Pedro Sula

The Cure Violence model to stopping violence is an epidemic control model that reduces violence by changing norms and behaviours and has been proven effective in the community setting. In 2012, Cure Violence conducted an extensive assessment of the violence in several potential program zones in San Pedro Sula and in April 2013 began implementing an adapted version of the model. In 2014, the first three zones implementing the model experienced a 73% reduction in
shootings and killings compared to the same 9-month period in 2013. In the first 5 months of 2015, five program zones experienced an 88% reduction in shootings and killing, including one site that went 17 months without any shootings. Read more about Cure Violence and its model in this piece by Apolitical, which highlights the organisation's work reducing violence in Chicago, and this related Spanish piece by Charles Ransford, R. Brent Decker, Guadalupe M. Cruz, Francisco Sánchez and Gary Slutkin.

Why we like this piece

Interrupting violence is the modus operandi of the Cure Violence model which started in the USA and has now gone global. Cure Violence’s programme in Honduras is important—because it shows how important context-responsive adaptations can really make or break a violence prevention strategy. Read here about this important work in San Pedro de Sula. In the words of Gary Slutkin founder of the original Cure Violence project, stopping violence in these global hotspots is not only a moral imperative; it is also crucially important to the safety and security of the entire world.