Using a time-series analyses, this article presents findings on the effectiveness of the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP), a lever-pulling strategy to reduce the occurrence of homicides.
The strategies developed by the Indianapolis Violence Reduction Partnership (IVRP) involved a focused deterrence approach coupled with increased linkage to services for high-risk offenders. An evaluation of the IVRP intervention provides evidence that the IVRP process did lead to reduced levels of homicide. Monthly homicides were reduced by 34.3 percent following the April 1999 intervention. A significant finding was that the pre-intervention rates were exceptionally high and that the numbers were likely to decline absent any intervention. An intervention which has had an impact on firearms violence, in respect to youth firearms violence, has been the “lever-pulling” strategy implemented originally in Boston in the mid-1990s. A series of meetings were held with gang members identified as at-risk of being involved in gun violence. The meetings included a deterrence-based message. The message was coupled with a crackdown on a violent gang where adult gang members were prosecuted in Federal, not State court. This crackdown gave credibility to the deterrence message. This strategy became known as the “lever-pulling” strategy. Indianapolis instituted this strategy in the late 1990s which became known as the IVRP. This article presents the results of a study conducted on the effectiveness of the IVRP in reducing homicides using a time series analyses. References