How Does Baltimore Stop Revenge After a Shooting?

Malcolm Gladwell says Baltimore stops the next killing by talking a likely avenger down before he acts. Much of homicide, he says, is young men settling beefs with violence, so prevention means intervening and training them to resolve conflicts in a more peaceable way. The visits work. They involve no arrests, no action on guns, no National Guard, and no show of force.

He describes a Chicago program in his book that teaches conflict resolution to teenage boys for a year-long class. Studies showed dramatic decreases down the line. Baltimore, which has had a dramatic decline in homicides, took the idea further. Each week, 25 people sit with a slide deck of every crime from the week. In the example, someone was shot on Wednesday at 8 p.m. The room asks who knows the family, then sends that person straight to the father and on to the brother, because they fear the brother will retaliate. A pastor and a crisis counselor go too. They sit with the brother, mention his social media post about going after the shooter, and ask him not to do it and whether they can help. The same afternoon they are at the house with someone the person who was shot trusts, telling the brother to chill.