Interviews

The Missouri model of Juvenile Justice is credited with a great turn around on how to work with juvenile corrections. It is also considered less expensive and is noted for low rates of recidivism inspiring similar initiatives across the US. Comunidad Segura interviewed Mark Steward, the man who played a key role in that change over 20 years.

Pandillas, or gangs, are growing in the United States and Europe, a very real option in the lives of disillusioned immigrant youths.  Mexico's Juan Carlos
Narváez focuses on the transnational experience in his book "Ruta
transnacional: a San Salvador por los Ángeles".

Teny Gross, head of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence in Providence, RI, discusses his work with youths age 14 to 23 in an area prone to gang violence. The institute is dedicated to violence prevention by reaching out to at-risk youths in their communities, through street outreach workers and programs that teach nonviolence in schools and jails.

Luís Pedernera, member of Uruguay's Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Child discusses their recent report that denounces detention centers that work as little more than warehouses for young offenders.

University of Chicago Illinois gang researcher Robert M. Lombardo is a man with 30 years experience in the police force and another 10 in the halls of academia. He discusses the changes imposed on gangs by the drug trade and the end of factory jobs in America, in his view, the trouble with gang violence is far from over. 

“People act based on expected behavior, on the expectations of their community. If you understand this you can promote change.” Cristina Bicchieri, Philosophy of Science professor at University of Pennsylvania, on science's contribution to social activism.

"South Africa has finally established a child justice system that will potentially reduce crime; promotes the accountability of children; and treats them in a manner appropriate to their ages," said Gallinetti in an exclusive interview to Comunidad Segura.  

In South Africa a long process with intimate participation from civil society is on the verge of passing ground breaking, affordable, Child Rights Law, that includes restorative justice and Ubuntu. Comunidad Segura interviewed Jacqui Gallinetti, representative of the Child Justice Alliance, who tells us what it means for South Africans. 

The seeds have been sown, warns Sociologist Laura Etcharren, unless the government takes heed and security specialists act in time, maras present in Argentina in embryonic state will soon grow. More in an exclusive interview given to Comunidad Segura.

A revision of the provincial anti-gang strategy is underway, a Coordination Forum has been set up to bring agencies together, there is change in the works for public policy targeting gangsterism in South Africa's Cape Town. Comunidad Segura spoke to Samantha Waterson, COAV Cities project coordinator, about violence prevention.