This Anti-Violence Program Has Been Proven to Cut Crime. Can It Work in Baltimore?


Massachusetts' Roca program uses five sites in the state to teach young men in their late teens and early 20s coping strategies to solve personal problems and change their behavior. The program targets men with previous criminal problems who actively resist other services and therapy, and who are deemed at high risk of violence. More than 80 percent of its graduates, who number more than 850 per year, have no new arrests, and two-thirds hold jobs six months after finishing the program. Seeing this success, Baltimore has committed $17 million in private and public funds to open a Roca chapter.

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