美国国家公共电台 NPR Treat Gun Violence Like A Public Health Crisis, One Program Says

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

As shootings and homicides continue to devastate¹ some Chicago neighborhoods, advocates are advising people to treat it as a public health crisis. Other cities like New York have embraced this model and say it's helped reduce gun violence. But in Chicago, a violence prevention program has struggled to get fully² funded, as NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE³: Cure Violence CeaseFire is a violence prevention program that's been a force in several cities in the U.S. and abroad. It gained national attention with the 2011 release of a documentary called "The Interrupters" that showed former gang members intervening to prevent disputes from turning deadly.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE INTERRUPTERS")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I'm not no punk or nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Only thing that came to my mind was retaliate⁴. They got to know they did the wrong person.

CORLEY: One goal of the program is to get people to think about violence as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice one, a problem that should be treated like a contagious⁵ disease.

GARY SLUTKIN: The root cause of cholera⁶ is cholera. The root cause of violence is violence.

CORLEY: Epidemiologist Gary Slutkin launched Cure Violence more than 20 years ago. He's a public health professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and says there's a reason why some neighborhoods are plagued by gun violence.

SLUTKIN: The definition of contagious is it produces more of itself. And how much you've been exposed is the predictor of whether you're likely to do it. So this is a health problem.

CORLEY: So violence interrupters and hospital responders, typically former gang members themselves or ex-felons, work like emergency room doctors to quickly sort out disagreements and to try to tamp⁷ down violence.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

NIKO WILLIAMS: As far as CeaseFire had helped me, I was out here crazy. I got shot six times.

CORLEY: Niko Williams is a former gang member who talked about CeaseFire during a hearing before Illinois state lawmakers.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WILLIAMS: Even in the hospital, I was still in the hospital shot, barely can talk, still thinking about getting out the hospital, killing⁸ somebody for shooting me.

CORLEY: Williams says it took the constant involvement of a CeaseFire outreach worker to help him change that attitude. There are multiple studies showing the program can make a difference. Northwestern University crime specialist Wesley Skogan conducted one.

WESLEY SKOGAN: So we looked at shootings within gang and crime networks and found that in fact in the CeaseFire areas, there was - shootings were much less likely to generate retaliatory⁹ shootings after CeaseFire was introduced.

CORLEY: But in 2013, the city of Chicago did not renew a million dollar grant to CeaseFire. Some officials claimed the program didn't work closely enough with police. Others dislike that many of the violence interrupters were former criminals. During that hearing before state lawmakers, Andre Thomas said it's his experience that makes him credible¹⁰.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANDRE THOMAS: If I can stop that person from being shot, who cares that I was in prison?

CORLEY: The program lost most of its funding from the state two years ago at the beginning of a long-running budget battle in Illinois. It now runs a scaled down version with private donations and grants. On the streets of Chicago's South Side, Jerusha Hodge is wearing an orange CeaseFire jacket. Years ago, she lost a 9-year-old daughter to gun violence. She is one of six CeaseFire employees working to curtail¹¹ violence in three sprawling¹² South Side neighborhoods.

JERUSHA HODGE: Oh, we are stretched. Six people for three different communities, that's not enough.

CORLEY: Although the group may be getting the official cold shoulder here, New York City, which has seen the lowest gun violence totals in 30 years, has embraced it wholeheartedly. Eric Cumberbatch heads New York City's Office to Prevent Gun Violence.

ERIC CUMBERBATCH: In 2016, we saw shootings in the areas that the crisis management system Cure Violence is operating go down by 10 percent. We're seeing young people in areas where the Cure Violence model is operating being less likely to revert¹³ to violence to solve conflict.

CORLEY: New York is currently investing $25 million in its Cure Violence effort. Javier Lopez, the city's assistant health commissioner¹⁴, says police recognize the partnership¹⁵ between the public health workers and criminal justice.

JAVIER LOPEZ: And I think there's been growing understandings between both of those worlds.

CORLEY: In Chicago, it's an understanding that supporters of Cure Violence CeaseFire say must also play a greater role here to reduce the deadly trend of gun violence infecting some neighborhoods. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.

1 devastate   

v.使荒芜，破坏，压倒

参考例句：

• A few days before,a fire had devastated large parts of Windsor Castle.几天前，温莎城堡的大部分被一场大火烧毁。
• Earthquakes can also cause tsunamis,which devastate coastal regions.地震还引发海啸，它直接破坏海岸地区。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 retaliate   

v.报复，反击

参考例句：

• He sought every opportunity to retaliate against his enemy.他找机会向他的敌人反击。
• It is strictly forbidden to retaliate against the quality inspectors.严禁对质量检验人员进行打击报复。

5 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

6 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

7 tamp   

v.捣实，砸实

参考例句：

• Then I tamp down the soil with the back of a rake.然后我用耙子的背将土壤拍实。
• Philpott tamped a wad of tobacco into his pipe.菲尔波特往烟斗里塞了一卷碎烟叶。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 retaliatory   

adj.报复的

参考例句：

• The process can take years before the WTO approves retaliatory action. 在WTO通过此行动之前，这个程序恐怕要等上一阵子了。 来自互联网
• Retaliatory tariffs on China are tantamount to taxing ourselves as a punishment. 将惩罚性关税强加于中国相当于对我们自己实施课税惩罚。 来自互联网

10 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

11 curtail   

vt.截短，缩短；削减

参考例句：

• The government hopes to curtail public spending.政府希望缩减公共事业开支。
• The minister had to curtail his visit.部长不得不缩短访问日期。

12 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

13 revert   

v.恢复，复归，回到

参考例句：

• Let us revert to the earlier part of the chapter.让我们回到本章的前面部分。
• Shall we revert to the matter we talked about yesterday?我们接着昨天谈过的问题谈，好吗？

14 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

15 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。