CeaseFire: Violence as a Disease, and How It Can Be Cured

Violence has long been considered a public health issue because it has been recognized to operate like a disease. As our understanding of the brain advances, this has become more than a convenient analogy. Violence is beginning to be understood as an actual disease that infects the brain in much the same way that other infectious diseases infect other parts of the body. In this presentation, we will review elements of infectious diseases and how exposure to violence operates within these elements – such as transmission, susceptibility, and the pathogenesis. We will also review the current understanding of how exposure to violence effects the brain, including behavior modeling, hyper-arousal and dissociative reactions, and mirror neuron systems.

This new understanding of violence allows for a new approach to reduce violence in our society. The CeaseFire Public Health Model for violence prevention is one approach that has been highly successful. Using to public health methods, the model interrupts ongoing violence, changes norms of the highest risk transmitters, and changes group norms around the use of violence. Two independent evaluations of CeaseFire have demonstrated large reductions in violent crime in program sites. We will review the elements of the model and the evidence for its effectiveness.