Stop the Cycle: Different Approaches
by Linnet Burden
series introduction
Research has shown that violent criminals often come from violent backgrounds, where they’ve experienced child abuse, domestic violence or other trauma. Meanwhile, inferior public schools and pervasive poverty plague Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods.
But why do some residents succeed despite it all?
How do some escape the cycles of violence, while so many others stay trapped?
These are questions I want to explore in this series. Many Chicagoans are tackling these huge issues, using a variety of approaches. Some might work and some might not – but at least they’re trying.
Playing to a Tough Crowd: READI Chicago
They’re playing to a tough crowd: 96% have prior arrests, 64% served time behind bars and 80% have been victims of violent crime themselves. READI Chicago, the Rapid Employment And Development Initiative, serves a hardened clientele that many wouldn’t attempt to...
Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings
Tamar Manasseh lays out a recipe for Chicago’s violence. “If you bake a cake, you need many things,” said the founder of Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings (MASK). “If you remove the baking soda or the eggs or something else, it won’t be a cake.” Likewise, she...
Friends of the Children
Friends of the Children stresses “the power of one” – one person, that is, who can rescue a kid from violence. “Our model is distinct, courageous and proven,” the organization’s website states. It is based on studies that show a caring, consistent adult is the one...
Healing Hurt People
It’s not what a typical medical student thinks of when they choose pediatrics as their field. But it’s now part of Dr. Bradley Stolbach’s career in children’s health care: gunshot wounds. Also stabbings and blunt force trauma inflicted by bricks, baseball bats and...
