Violence is often defined as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm and degradation to fellow human beings,or non-human life,such as humiliation,pain,injury,disablement,damage to property and ultimately death,as well as destruction to a civilization society's living environment,but some definitions are somewhat broader,such as the World Health Organization's definition,as "the intentional use of physical force or power,threatened or actual,against oneself,another person,or against a group or community,which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury,death,psychological harm,maldevelopment,or deprivation."
Gary LaFree is a Professor and Chair of the Criminology and Criminal Justice department at the University of Maryland,College Park,the Director of the Maryland Crime Research and Innovation Center (MCRIC) and the Founding Director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). His main areas of expertise are sociology,criminology,race and crime,cross-national comparative research and political violence and terrorism.
Daniel F. Conley is an American attorney and politician who served as the district attorney for Suffolk County,Massachusetts from 2002 to 2018. Appointed to the office in February 2002,Conley was later elected on November 5,2002,and again in 2006,2010,and 2014. He retired in 2018 to enter private practice.
Chauncey Parker currently serves as the Deputy Mayor of New York City for Public Safety under Mayor Eric Adams. He formerly served as the Assistant Deputy Mayor of New York City for Public Safety and Deputy Commissioner for Collaborative Policing for the New York City Police Department. He is also the Executive Director of the New York/New Jersey HIDTA],a federal grant program that invests in law enforcement partnerships to build safe and healthy communities.
Gun violence is a term of political,economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States.
Operation Ceasefire(also known as the Boston Gun Project and the Boston Miracle) is a problem-oriented policing initiative implemented in 1996 in Boston,Massachusetts. The program was specifically aimed at youth gun violence as a large-scale problem. The plan is based on the work of criminologist David M. Kennedy.
Christopher S. Koper is Professor of Criminology,Law and Society at George Mason University,and a senior fellow and co-director of the evidence-based policing program in the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy.
James Barrett Jacobs was the Warren E. Burger Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts at New York University School of Law,where he was a faculty member since 1982. He was a specialist in criminal law,criminal procedure,and criminal justice.
Lawrence W. Sherman is an experimental criminologist and police educator who defined evidence-based policing. Since October 2024 he has served as Chief Executive Officer of Benchmark Cambridge,a global police reform organisation. From 2022-24 he was Chief Scientific Officer of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard,and since 2017 he has served as the Wolfson Professor of Criminology Emeritus at the University of Cambridge Institute of Criminology.
The Citizens Crime Commission of New York City is an independent,non-profit,nonpartisan organization focused on criminal justice and public safety policy reform.
David M. Kennedy is an American criminologist,professor,action researcher,and author specializing in crime prevention among inner city gangs,especially in the prevention of violent acts among street gangs. Kennedy developed the Operation Ceasefire group violence intervention in Boston in the 1990s and the High Point Model drug market intervention in High Point,North Carolina,in 2003,which have proven to reduce violence and eliminate overt drug markets in jurisdictions around the United States. He founded the National Network for Safe Communities in 2009 to support cities using these and related strategies.
The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law,established in 2000 as the Institute for Global Legal Studies,serves as a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law.
Richard Rosenfeld was an American criminologist and former Curators’Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Michael H. Tonry,an American criminologist,is the McKnight Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and Policy at the University of Minnesota Law School. He is also the director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on Crime and Public Policy. He has been a visiting professor of law and criminology at the University of Lausanne since 2001 and a senior fellow at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement at Free University Amsterdam since 2003.
Anthony Allan Braga is an American criminologist and the Jerry Lee Professor of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. Braga is also the Director of the Crime and Justice Policy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. He previously held faculty and senior research positions at Harvard University,Northeastern University,Rutgers University,and the University of California at Berkeley. Braga is a member of the federal monitor team overseeing the reforms to New York City Police Department (NYPD) policies,training,supervision,auditing,and handling of complaints and discipline regarding stops and frisks and trespass enforcement.
Jeremy Travis is an American academic administrator who served as the fourth president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice,a senior college of the City University of New York,starting on August 16,2004. On October 25,2016,Travis announced that he would step down from his position as president the next year. In August 2017,he joined the Arnold Ventures LLC as Senior Vice President of Criminal Justice.
The National Network for Safe Communities (NNSC) is a research center at City University of New York John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The NNSC works with communities to reduce violence,minimize arrest and incarceration,and increase trust between law enforcement and the public. Working in partnership with cities around the country the NNSC provides advising on implementing evidence-based violence reduction strategies. Additionally,the NNSC provides guidance on how to build trust between law enforcement and the communities it serves,facilitates connections between practitioners within and across jurisdictions,and serves as a resource for knowledge about violence prevention and reduction strategies.
Clark C. Abt is an American researcher born August 31,1929,in Cologne,Germany. He became an American citizen in 1945,at age 16,and is known for first formalizing the concept and usages of serious games.
Nancy La Vigne is a criminologist who is the director of the National Institute of Justice of the United States. She previously served as the vice president for Justice Policy,directing the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute,a Washington,D.C. based think tank. Her work focuses on data-driven and research-informed improvements to policy and practice on a wide array of criminal justice topics and justice-involved populations.
Laurie Robinson is an American scholar and public servant who has held multiple positions across government,academia,and the nonprofit sector. Robinson's most notable roles include serving as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs under former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama,and co-chairing Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. She also served on the congressionally created Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections and on an independent commission that explored the potential closure of New York City's Rikers Island jail complex. Most recently,Robinson served as founding Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council on Criminal Justice,a nonpartisan policy and research organization.
