Skip to main content

This is archived content from the U.S. Department of Justice website. The information here may be outdated and links may no longer function. Please contact webmaster@usdoj.gov if you have any questions about the archive site.

Blog Post

Anti-Violence Strategy Month: Celebrating the Fight Against Crime and Recidivism

 The Justice Department commemorated Anti-Violence Strategy month in June, with events across the nation, to spotlight and unveil effective strategies and initiatives to combat violence.  Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to Cleveland Defending Childhood Initiative team members at a violent crime prevention event sponsored by Stand Together Against Neighborhood Crime Everyday on June 28, 2011. At the event, Attorney General Holder stated:
“Whether you work to shape policy; to examine and identify the most pressing local public safety challenges; to develop and implement successful prevention, intervention, and reentry programs; to reach out to young people and families who are in need and at risk; or to advance enforcement efforts and policing strategies – your contributions are essential.”
Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli kicked off the month in Roanoke, Va., on June 9, 2011, at a roundtable discussion with community partners and U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy of the Western District of Virginia.  Perrelli highlighted the department’s continued commitment to crime prevention initiatives and prisoner re-entry support programs as a means of reducing recidivism rates and crimes committed by youth, noting:
“At the Department of Justice, we are investing in more effective enforcement strategies, but we are also investing in communities across the country in proven strategies for preventing crime, in particular for reaching vulnerable young people before they commit crimes or when they begin going down the wrong path, and we are also investing in providing a transition for individuals coming out of prison, what we call reentry, because if we can reduce the recidivism rate, we can also reduce crime. "
On June 17, 2011, Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) reinforced the department’s support of gang prevention programs and acknowledged the role gangs play in perpetuating violent crime among youth.  Speaking at the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony of the Greenville Neighborhood Center in Charlotte, N.C., Robinson offered her support of the center, a new neighborhood facility for a group called Gang of One. Operated by the Mecklenburg County, N.C., Police Department, in partnership with local agencies, citizens and law enforcement, and funded partially by OJP grants, Gang of One helps to prevent youth from joining gangs in the Charlotte-metro area. On June 16, 2011, Principal Deputy Attorney General Mary Lou Leary observed a Project Safe Neighborhood Probation and Parole Reentry Education Program session in Oklahoma City with U.S. Attorney Sandy Coats at which several federal, local agency partners and social service providers spoke on prisoner re-entry and post-incarceration/probation and parole services.  Principal Deputy Attorney General Leary also joined U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman for an anti-violence strategy event at the Project Safe Neighborhood Anti-Gang Training Conference in New Brunswick, N.J. Other U.S. Attorneys will be hosting Anti-Violence strategy events across the country in their communities and Indian country with federal, state, local and tribal partners. Find your local U.S. Attorney office for more information on events in your community.
Updated April 7, 2017
Component
Office of Justice Programs (OJP)