Chicago Project for Violence Prevention - Interview at the 2009 NIJ Conference

• NCJ Number: 234708
• Date Published: June 2009
• Author(s): Gary Slutkin
• Length: 1 page
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis; Interview

Annotation

This is a video and transcript of an interview with Gary Slutkin at the 2009 NIJ Conference, after his presentation on his work as the executive director of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention.

Abstract

The focus of the interview is on Slutkin's explanation about why anger and punishment are overvalued and ineffective as a means of preventing violent behavior. He argues that punishment has a small part in learning normative non-violent behaviors, since behaviors are learned primarily by imitating, observing, and practicing what those closest to us are doing in interactions with and behaviors toward others. The social and psychological literature reasons that aggressive punishment is copied as aggression that uses forceful actions, threats, controls, pain, and deprivation to bend others to our will.