CIRV’s first year report shows a 49.2 per cent drop in recorded violent activity among gang members who engaged with the initiative.

 

The results also show a drop of 18.5 per cent in recorded violent activity among those gang members who refused to engage with CIRV.

 

CIRV works by treating the gang as a unit rather than as individuals and using the gang themselves to address their own behaviour. 

 

To date 368 violent gang members have signed up to the CIRV initiative. The figures were given a cautious welcome by Chief Inspector Robert Stevenson, who heads up CIRV on behalf of the Violence Reduction Unit.

“This isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning. Gang violence hasn’t stopped.

 

“When a similar initiative was run in the US similar results were achieved in the first year. The impetus of the initiative then slowed as it was felt they had achieved their aims. Levels of gang violence subsequently rose again the following year. The lesson we must draw from this is that while these figures are good news, we cannot reduce our efforts now. Rather, we must redouble them. We fully anticipate there is a chance that, in a year’s time, the figures may not be as good as this – they may, despite our efforts, have increased.

 

“Gang violence has been with us for many, many years and we will not change that culture overnight.”