Breaking the cycle: How research is shaping a new approach to gun violence prevention

Addressing gun violence requires more than enforcement—it requires stopping the cycle before it can escalate. At Case Western Reserve University Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, researchers are helping evaluate an innovative specialty court program designed to do just that.

The Violence Intervention Program (VIP) docket, launched in Cuyahoga County under the leadership of Judge Brendan Sheehan, pairs individuals charged with eligible non-violent gun-related offenses with intensive court supervision and support services rather than incarceration. The program seeks to reduce future gun violence by addressing the underlying factors that contribute to justice system involvement. Early findings from the pilot program have shown promising outcomes, including lower reoffending (known as recidivism) rates among participants who complete the program.

Helping measure those outcomes is Jesse Bassett (SAS ’23), a research associate at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education at the Mandel School and a doctoral candidate in social welfare. He leads the evaluation of the current program phase, using data to help determine which interventions have the greatest impact.

“The docket was created to see if they could reduce future incidents of gun violence and recidivism and keep young men out of the system,” he said. “We are managing all of the data collection to perform a robust evaluation to look at markers that affect the success of the program, and we are seeing encouraging results.”

For Bassett, the work represents a natural progression from his own education and early career. A graduate of the Mandel School's Master of Social Work program, he was drawn to the school's emphasis on trauma-informed practice before beginning work in community mental health with youth and families, many of whom had entered the juvenile justice system.

"Trauma was at the center of all of it," Bassett said. "This [program] just really aligned with my interests and was a unique opportunity to evaluate how we can reduce future incidents of violence.”

One of the VIP docket program's defining features is its emphasis on support rather than punishment. Qualifying participants receive access to services that can help stabilize their lives, such as mental health counseling, employment assistance, education, peer mentorship and case management. In many cases, successful completion of the program can also lead to the sealing of criminal records, removing barriers to future employment and opportunity.

Bassett said one of the most interesting findings from the evaluation involved the program’s mandatory drug screening and program completion rates. The study found no association between positive drug tests and failure to complete the program. Instead, they found that program graduates and those who did not finish had very similar drug screen rates. 

While this outcome was surprising, Bassett credits the passage rates to the program’s trauma-informed approach, which focuses on finding solutions rather than punitive action. This means a failed drug test doesn’t necessarily mean a program expulsion.

“Even if someone screens positive, they aren’t automatically kicked out of the program,” Bassett explained. “They work with individuals to come up with a plan to remedy it. And I think that non-punitive framework creates an environment where these clients know that if they mess up, there's a road for them to continue forward, so they stick with it instead of quitting.”

The research also explored the role mentorship plays in reducing recidivism. Participants paired with mentors who had themselves navigated violence and the justice system were more likely to graduate from the program than unmentored participants. Those findings are helping inform the next phase of the evaluation, which will include a larger sample size, expanded data collection and interviews with participants to better understand their experiences.

Looking ahead, Bassett believes the greatest opportunity lies in preventing violence long before someone enters the courtroom.

"Hopefully, we can move upstream more and more to try to address the root causes of gun violence,” he said. “We need a unified multi-system, collaborative approach because it is such a thorny, challenging issue that it's going to take a collective effort, not just one specialized docket out of the juvenile and the adult courts.”

While the Mandel School plays an important role in evaluating the program and generating evidence to guide future improvements, the work wouldn’t be possible without the community organizations, court leaders and service providers that implement the processes every day. Together, those partnerships demonstrate how research and practice can come together to strengthen communities.

By combining rigorous evaluation with community collaboration, the Mandel School continues to help identify evidence-based solutions to one of Northeast Ohio's most pressing challenges—advancing knowledge that not only measures what works but helps shape a safer future for the communities it serves.