Report on 'A Call to Action': Community-Based Gang Violence Reduction

This report examines 'A Call to Action,' an initiative developed to combat escalating gang-related crimes in Los Angeles County, where over 100,000 gang members terrorized the area. Traditional law enforcement methods proved ineffective, costing $25 billion over 30 years without success. The re...Read More

Running Head: A Call to Action 1
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Running Head: A Call to Action 2
A Call to Action
‘A Call to Action’ is a report that was developed to curb the escalation of gang-related
crimes in the County of Los Angeles. The gangs had become a menace in the city that the law
enforcement had unsuccessfully tried to manage. The gang increased to more than 100,000
members who terrorized the county. The police had tried to use methods that led to its use of
25bilion dollars during a 30-year span which did not work. It only caused the gangs to retaliate
and increase their gang violence and dealings. The law enforcement to use a more strategic
model that included the community through intervention strategies, community mobilization,
suppression and prevention (Grogger, 2014). It was due to the reason that there were more than
850, 000 children in Los Angeles who needed protection from joining these gangs.
The report was embraced and implemented in the year 2006 with the media highlighting
its prospects. For the first time, there was an assembly of stakeholders who wanted the reduce of
these gangs. The police met with prosecutors and those who headed departments while
deliberating with educators, health officers, and advocates. Five years late in 2011, there was a
positive outcome in Los Angeles. The gang-related crime had reduced with considerable
proportionate of over 15%. There were fewer cases of gang-related homicides in Los Angeles.
The new approach to the violence was based on a community approach (Herbert, 2016). What
was needed was a different culture to be implemented on the youth for them to have a change of
perception. Arrests and re-arrests of the gang members only made matters worse.
The Comprehensive Violence Reduction Strategy (CVRS) ensured that it used innovative
methods that were better positioned to address violence reductions. It worked under three
fundamental principles which included built-in accountability through the whole program,
ensuring that the policy process was solely driven by data and finally that the approaches were

Running Head: A Call to Action 3
entirely community-based with service delivery that was culturally competent. The framework
took specific roles. They included that the recommendations from the report were implemented
fully within Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department. It ensured that there was a
deep understanding of the process by stakeholders (Alonso, 2014). It was done through capacity
building of all stakeholders.
The CVRS played the role of providing that there were tools and the commencement of
practical training of all stakeholders. It included the introduction of a curriculum to be used by
the Los Angeles Violence Intervention Training Academy (LAVITA). The training academy was
to be used to serve gang interventionists and law enforcers. There was the importance of
ensuring that different groups among the stakeholders who held divergent views were all
consulted to have the same goal. The forums were significant due to interests that arose during
the Urban Peace (Gilliam Jr, Iyengar, Simon, & Wright, 2017). The presence of the jurisdiction
collaboration in ensuring that different jurisprudence was involved for the impact to be
experienced in the gangs.
In conclusion, the report highlighted the importance of being multidisciplinary in
embracing best practices and having leaders that are sophisticated interracially to do evaluations
that diminished the prevalence of gang violence.

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References
Alonso, A. A. (2014). Racialized identitites and the formation of black gangs in Los
Angeles. Urban Geography, 25(7), 658-674.
Gilliam Jr, F. D., Iyengar, S., Simon, A., & Wright, O. (2017). Crime in black and white: The
violent, scary world of local news. Harvard International Journal of press/politics, 1(3),
6-23.
Grogger, J. (2014). The effects of civil gang injunctions on reported violent crime: Evidence
from Los Angeles County. The Journal of Law and Economics, 45(1), 69-90.
Herbert, S. (2016). The geopolitics of the police: Foucault, disciplinary power and the tactics of
the Los Angeles Police Department. Political Geography, 15(1), 47-59.