How Scotland Reduced Violent Crime | John Carnochan
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“I don’t mind these fellas being in gangs, it’s what the gangs do that is the issue for me. If the gangs are playing football or rugby that’s fine... It’s when they are out on a Friday night stabbing each other, that becomes an issue for me.”
SHOW DESCRIPTION
Location: Glasgow
Date: Tuesday, 22nd January 2020
Company: Scottish Violence Reduction Unit
Role: Former Detective Chief Superintendent
When John Carnochan joined Strathclyde Police as deputy head of CID in 2002, Glasgow, in particular, was experiencing extreme levels of violent crime. Scotland had become the murder capital of Europe and had five times the murder rate of London.
The methods used by the police were mostly ineffective, so John took a radical approach, launching the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence. This initiative offered education, health services, careers advice, social services and diversionary projects to the most vulnerable gang members.
The VRU was a massive success. In 2004/05 there were 137 homicides in Scotland. By 2016/17 this number had dropped to 62, attempted murders dropped from 828 to 317, and serious assaults fell by almost half.
In this interview, I talk to John Carnochan, former Detective Chief Superintendent. His Violence Reduction Unit and Community Initiative to Reduce Violence program helped significantly reduce violent crime and homicide rates in Scotland
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SHOW NOTES
Connect with John:
Mentioned in the show:
NRP: How Glasgow Cut Crime After Once Being The 'Murder Capital Of Europe'
BBC: Scotland named the most violent country in the developed world by the United Nations
The Guardian: Scotland has second highest murder rate in Europe
The Independent: Glasgow is Britain's murder capital as knife crime spirals
The Times: Glasgow sheds ‘murder capital’ reputation as youth crime falls dramatically
Quartz: The numbers behind the UK’s knife crime “national emergency”
Reuters: UK PM backs 'stop-and-search' power, says will create 10,000 more spaces in prisons
The Guardian: How Scotland reduced knife deaths among young people
The Guardian: Should we treat crime as something to be cured rather than punished?
BBC: Glasgow drives huge fall in serious violent crime across Scotland
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