Gary Slutkin: Let's treat violence like a contagious disease

Physician Gary Slutkin spent a decade fighting tuberculosis, cholera and AIDS epidemics in Africa. When he returned to the United States, he thought he'd escape brutal epidemic deaths. But then he began to look more carefully at gun violence, noting that its spread followed the patterns of infectious diseases. A mind-flipping look at a problem that too many communities have accepted as a given. We've reversed the impact of so many diseases, says Slutkin, and we can do the same with violence. (Filmed at TEDMED.)
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[@ShinYoungNoh]

I love how he saw a common pattern and tried to think of a solution. There should be more people like him.

[@buttmuddbrooks]

Being in the Criminal Justice field and studying it, this is a phenomenal talk. Brilliant idea. Its needs more attention and to implemented in all states.

[@TJackSurvival]

Same

[@hypock1]

Educating people to not condone or participate in violence is the key here. It is about minimizing forced interventions such as jail and maximizing the education and rehabilitation of people effected by it.

[@GuilhermeCosta1992]

Does this mean that, if we are nice to each other, it spreads? Man, I gotta give a hug to someone.

[@dekapitacja]

Great, great guy, great approach to a problem, new to me, he deserves more recognition, THUMBS UP!!!!!

[@holleey]

great talk. i hope and believe that more and more will realize that the fight against violence is NOT a fight against people.

[@gulllars]

Great talk. Unfortunate last name. I love the underlying concept here. He he recognized a pattern, and then applied a hypothesis that things that usually applied to that pattern would also apply once more just adjusted for the new circumstance. This is applicable to a lot of other problems too. Abstraction of concepts and frameworks allows reuse of parts or whole solutions. As someone who enjoyes programming this agrees with me at a deep level.

[@h4x3l]

You're changing the context and shifting the boundaries of this methodology. This guy proved you can dramatically change the behaviour of a community just by applying the right kind of pressure, changing it for good. Just look at the stats, how can you argue with it? He didn't even talk about random crime or self defence.

[@timsricochet]

Very good point.

[@Durchbrechen]

great job. Congratulations Gary !

[@baddogone42]

Nice talk.

[@swesleyc7]

As a resident of Chicago I love this.

[@AndyMossMetta]

A positive and commendable step forward. Useful (and most importantly practical) at its own level and within its own limitations. A complemetary stepping stone perhaps towards the profound teachings of the 'Dharma'?.

[@MongPhu]

This doctor is awesome!!

[@heinzie5]

this is insanely impressive

[@lives2live]

I makes intuitive sense as well. Our behavior is heavily influenced by those around us. Dan Ariley's talks about his behavioral economics studies show that clearly. We are more likely to do good when we see those around us do good, and more likely to do harm when we see those around us doing so as well. Really fascinating.

[@jchevi]

Take this project to Argentina please! We are really in need of a project like this, so many crazy and violent people everywhere, so much poor people that only see a way of leaving with robbery and killing and no one doing anything about it.

[@alexrafter]

Great video

[@music0cool]

thanks! you too :)

[@akram4179]

Good man.

[@lordmetroid]

If one wants to eradicate violence a secure upbrining is necessary and should of course be a goal. However in the meantime until that goal is reached, managing the symptoms and reducing the frequency of outbreaks of violence is pretty darn impressive.

[@HenryDahut]

Brilliant man. Brilliant concept. It is time for our penal system to leave behind the stale and cruel concepts that permeated the Middle Ages. Violence begets violence. Kindness begets kindness. Deny one and promote the other.

[@FlintSparkedStudios]

Wow, I really found this too idealistic until he started talking about the statistics of what they've already experimented with. Very cool way to think of this, hope to see more of it in the future.

[@TheActiveAssault]

Seems optimistic. I dig it.

[@yourfaceishumerus]

True. It's a new and decent way of looking at violence and mental illness, but where do we draw the line at treating mental illness and changing people's mindsets simply because we don't like it?

[@TJackSurvival]

Finally something that actually works. Unlike gun free zones and gun control/gun bans. Thank you for using actual science to fix actual problems.

[@gmaleannls]

Thank going to see how I can help

[@andy4an]

love these guys! this is like reading a case study of "a whack on the side of the head"

[@PBrofaith]

I like the idea of this in principal. I recognize the wisdom of collaboration with the state It is essential. where i disagree is installing this system as being completely dependent on the state for funding. We should ensure these programs continue through community support developing independent funding in preparation for the time when funding will be withheld

[@alexanderforcewielder2910]

Everyone has a change to evolve beyond who, what they are.

[@markwonder8168]

The sad thing is that violence exists for as long as people exist. It's part of being human and nature shows that it's also part of animals life. As a conscious and intelligent beings we can try to control it, but I think one shouldn't expect that we could get rid of it, just by treating it as a disease.

[@AdlerAB]

I'm not saying we should label them. I think it's quite evident which areas are more prone to childhood abuse and violent behavior (which you correctly pointed out). I'm saying we should keep the instances of these areas to a minimum by improving the conditions there.

[@sparksandstuff7936]

This idea seems applicable even with something like child abuse. The main reason people abuse children is because of traumatic treatment in their own childhood. It directly correlates to gun violence.

[@diamond852]

No, science has not replaced morality. Science has merged with morality.

[@KickoStocks]

I have had a few Alutkins in my time, some of them had infectious diseases too

[@AlaaBanna]

I agree with you in many aspects. Yes, I do believe that the current economical system is the main reason for many of our big problems including violence. I also agree that the solution offered by "The Zeitgeist" will probably make things lot better regarding such problems.. But, the thing is, as the doctor stated; When we cannot solve the problem of everything we can always fix the symptoms. And looking at violence as a disease will probably help decreasing it with least efforts.

[@LeonidasGGG]

Sometimes all you need is a new/right guy to look at a problem from a new/diferent angle to find the solution.

[@justgivemethetruth]

9:00 - I'm a bit skeptical of that 67% drop in shootings number ... how did they measure that?

[@SCAREDBANANA]

Perhaps there still is hope for humanity.

[@marshaul]

Not only does the prohibition of mala prohibita acts such as possession/sale of drugs, firearms, prostitution etc. play an important role in prison populations directly, it's also the critical demand factor causing growth in the law enforcement and incarceration industries, which of course has a causal and correlative relationship with imprisonment rates.

[@FlintSparkedStudios]

Did you watch the whole video? Or just read the title and click on it to comment.

[@EllaABo]

This is genius. It's amazing how violence can be reduced this way. I do wonder whether there is any placebo affect or Hawthorne effect that plays a role here. Could that be possible? The effect would still be positive, so no complaints, I'm just wondering about this.

[@erasmusso]

If you want to drive a car you need a license. I say: if you want to have children you need a license too! Raising children carelessly is incomparably worse than driving carelessly. All parents should complete a course and be evaluated. Since we can't stop them from having children, we can do this: if they don't pass, they need to keep in contact with a therapist who will keep an eye out for the situation in that family. No more domestic violence and abuse of helpless children!

[@thinbluelinemustang372]

How is this working now Chicago? 2020...2021....2022 staring of with a bang too.

[@dafyddlewis89]

awsome

[@dekoomers]

Your Right, But this video proves there's multiple ways of treating violence for those people who haven't been "raised" well as children.

[@zavindur]

Brilliant - I think discoveries that are happened upon are a true work of science. I think the key to the cure are the interrupters- maybe a new form of social worker; this could really change the world.

[@marshaul]

This is a very interesting approach, one which I find much validity in. I do, however, find Slutkin to be naïve on one point: that this strategy will do much to reduce prison populations. Unfortunately, while violence may in fact behave like a disease and reducing violence is a worthy goal in its own right, prison populations do not reflect the amount of violence in a society. America has been getting LESS dangerous over the last couple decades, and yet our prison population continues to grow.

[@Warsie]

mrhouston n posted this on the TED website, and I will repost it as I agree with him: "Yes, of course violence is a health issue, and it is transmissible from person to person, as any other human behavior, by the way. Its really amazing how this isnt obvious to everybody. However let me be the one to address the elefant in the room. Human behaviours come from the environment, not genes, and the environment is not only other humans, or psychological in nature, but obviously they have a physical cause, as our behaviour is derived from all of it. In other words the true source here is not other people, they are just carriers, the source is the economical situation. Structural violence. So what youre basically doing in "campains against violence" - and they have existed around the world for a long time - is equivalent to kicking someone in the stomach while psychologically convincing him/her to remain quiet while you do so. You are, by repressing these feelings, creating at the same time a time bomb of feelings that wont be expressed but will accumulate anyway, while creating a way to masquerate the society as something that doesnt need changing, revigorating traditionalism, wich brings in more structural violence. Youre hiding problems. Like solucionating protests by turning off the internet. The source is as obvious as the situation itself, but its nothing the academic community will acknowledge anytime soon, I know. Its a shame, but when I say the word, most so-called scientists reading this will turn off their science method for information evaluation and just be like any religious fanatic out there: Capitalism. We created a system of exploitation, that cant work without problems or scarcity, where complete selfishness is a requirement to be part of the ones who decides our priorities as a species, where the creation of psychological confusion and misinformantion through propagandism is encoraged and rewarded by the market and expect to have peace?? The system is violent. Violence is a social-systemic desease, not an individual one."

[@DynamicUnreal]

I just see so many things that are reverse. One would think that it would be in the government's best interest for a person coming out of jail to have a job, instead of making it harder to acquire a job by having a criminal record. Regardless, I hope this method of dealing with violence gets adopted nationwide.

[@Miranox2]

Labeling people and households as "good" or "bad" is not going to decrease violence. If anything it will increase violence due to the discrimination the "bad" households face. Inequality and poverty are the main sources of violence in every society.

[@Novasky2007]

it isn't an infection.. its a need born and driven cycle that spreads between the relatives and peers of victims of a previous unrelated cycle.

[@Tupster]

I'm trying to understand what somebody could possibly have against pell grants.

[@ericmoulot9148]

I'll put this approach into the memetics category: modeling of social phenomena as living entities with identifiable characteristics. Is this the way social sciences are heading?

[@BUSeixas11]

I tought exactly the same!

[@Ruby_V_]

I don't feel the point was to construct an authoritative model. This is just how one man applied the systems of thought that he was familiar with to a problem of semi-similar kind and had significant/inspiring results. I feel sure that he and most of the other people looking at the problem intently are all ears for other potential mental frameworks and/or solutions.

[@xSilverPhinxx]

I have a predatory teacher problem, how do I eradicate that infection?

[@mba2ceo]

Control anger ... U control violence !!!

[@alangnixon]

Maybe. However, we do know that it is more prominent in some places than others. Therefore we have been able to analyse it and look for things that lessen the occurrence of violence. Put simply, one of the major findings is that violence is 'contagious', passed on and enhanced through socialisation. Like a disease, anything that takes violence numbers down is a good thing. We don't necessarily have to have a total solution. This one is also more humane than most.

[@HunsV]

Everyone has internal demons that they need to detect, understand, and educate. Some of us are lucky enough to come to this realization, to accept full responsibility for our position in life (whether we put ourselves there or not), and to figure out what needs to happen to be a better person. Others of us are not so lucky. They find it far easier to hang all of their suspicions, fears, and hatreds on an external enemy. That way, it's someone else's fault - and someone else's responsibility.

[@music0cool]

ikr i was just thinking about that. i wonder if hes married..."oh yes i got engaged! soon i will be mrs. slutkin." XD

[@Jayremy89]

Violence is like a disease or virus, but also is a symptom of any form of oppression. A vast majority of violence has a clear objective motive to it. People who are often short of material goods to stay happy, healthy or alive; those who are receiving a form of injustice - bullying/abuse, fraud, theft, bad laws, unfair "justice"; those denied emotional "needs" or suppressed natural human urges: Are all reasons people do these things. Ignorance, apathy and narcissism allow it.

[@manojtester395]

Good

[@amorphusensanity]

Part of the beauty of statistics is that you are making reasonable predictions of "random" events based on recent observations. Predictions are not expected to be exact because there is not an underlying observable cause and effect. Statistical predictions would much more appropriately be given as a graph than a number.

[@Stavol2Dual]

In the case of contagious diseases such as aids, in regards to violence there will always be 'Bug Chasers'

[@justgivemethetruth]

Guy looks like Michael Ironsides, Rasczak from "Starship Troopers".

[@dmosier]

MachOverspeedsPlace: Sir I think you and I are on the same wavelength!

[@anthonywilliams2020]

Violence is a disease but not a contagious

[@mba2ceo]

Anger is the main reason for violence !!!

[@AdlerAB]

I like the idea, but it might be difficult to enforce this. Whatever the case, I would advocate this if someone bold enough were to propose it. Perhaps at the state-level this could be experimented with to see the results.

[@pablo_brianese]

Could YOU GiVE ME A HAND? I translated this talk into spanish but I can't figure out what he sais at about 7:05. Specifically "We designed a new category of worker, who like the (???) worker (...)" Please I would realy appreciate your help. Thank you all.

[@pablo_brianese]

Please, I really look forward to finishing this translation

[@erasmusso]

Thanks for the idea, I'll call an organization that deals with child abuse problems and see what they think about it :)

[@hillbonyek3560]

Wow

[@HamsterPants522]

The only way to cure violence is to raise children better.

[@natyboops]

Imagine if we used this interruption technique AND fixed the other problems such as poverty, racism and lack of education....we could not only solve the problems of violence, but we could also solve others such as poor health care, hunger, etc. It is important to realize that this an important PART of the solutions our communities need, but not the WHOLE solution.

[@Relyt345]

Violence isn't necessarily a bad thing, there's a time and place for it. If humanity was completely non violent we would have died out. It's how you apply it. For example almost all super heroes are violent.

[@cypressz]

His results speak for themselves, though. Moods and psychological states are contagious, that much is accepted as one of the basic tenants of social psychology. Put someone in a toxic and broken neighborhood and they'll become more toxic and broken themselves. Treat violent tendencies before they turn into actual violence and you prevent violent crimes. Adapting a medical treatment framework to do that job is a practical solution.

[@clearmenser]

A world of wanted children would make a huge difference too.

[@thestrangejames]

It should shock no one that the emotionally unstable are likely to react unpredictably, including violently. That's like saying "This man is dying, give him CPR. He died! The CPR must have killed him!"

[@mohibthepaki]

nice

[@pkeyrich]

It reminds me of an episode from The Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon uses positive reinforcement techniques to train Leonard's girlfriend into a better person overall. Leonard didn't approve of Sheldon training Penny.

[@DrSpooglemon]

Proven by whom? Where can I read the paper that they published?

[@rrmackay]

Before any of this makes any sense or could possibly work you would need to end the violence of the state against other states and the people. America is hyper-violent because our institutions are hyper violent!

[@HunsV]

Our nation was built on genocide, like many others. It isn't surprising that we have an overly aggressive stance. However, what he is talking about is part of the solution to how unbelievably crooked (and violent) our institutions are. He is one of VERY few people who have both the desire and capability to take the wind out of the endless cycle of punishment and recidivism, to empty prisons instead of trying to justify more funding for them. That's how you get results!

[@aaroncollier7984]

Hypothesis: All behavior, desirable or undesirable, follows the same processes as contagious disease. Any behavior that encourages adoption by others for any reason, causes a prior case of the behavior to be the strongest predictor of future cases. If this hypothesis is true, then all social behavioral problems may be addressed using analysis tools developed for managing infectious disease. These analysis methods can us tell both how to stop and also how to encourage spread of behaviors.

[@bordaz1]

Well, we have to somehow live together, somehow. So much of the violence in Chicago - where his accent suggests he's from - is a logical conclusion of 'acts of self-defense' from people competing for turf and resources. i'd rather live in a peaceful society where everyone has access to legitimate wealth creation, and this guy's experience and point of view is a step in the right direction, no matter how 'incomplete'

[@tdreamgmail]

Good talk. But how does this combat the "business" of arresting and imprisoning people. People are firstly interested in economic benefit to change.

[@takaditakadang]

I like to compare it to gunpowder vs rubber. One of them is inherently more prone to explosion than the other, in fact made that way. However, if both of them reside in an environment like water where these effects aren't "triggered", you might say "see, gunpowder isn't explosive!". Same with a violent person, you might raise them in a certain, rare environment where their violent nature doesn't surface. That doesn't mean they aren't inherently violent

[@SuperAtheist]

what does "better" mean?

[@flowin83]

Violence is also power and control, especially in Chicago were you have people on the south side that have no other way of getting the feeling of power of success, a gang shooting to killing is there only way if expressing power. I live 1h west of Chicago in a wealthy town were people express power and strength by possessing expensive goods like big houses and cars, no need for violence in those communities.

[@AdlerAB]

I don't believe that eugenics can solve the problem of violence, since most people that are prone to violent outbursts have a history of child abuse anyway. Besides, I wouldn't want children to grow up in an unstable environment so we as a society should try to keep conditions favorable for loving families and not broken households.

[@0IIIIII]

Violence is a disease and I am a carrier.

[@srimansrini]

Treating violence as an infectious disease is a good idea. Before that you have to find out the root cause of its problem and sort out those matters politically. Poverty, Poor / Rich Divide and Unemployment and lack of education are some of them. Giving religious discourses to the masses like India also very helpful to come out of this problem. More than anything else, I would strongly recommend all the Americans should watch "Bowling for Columbine." to understand the problem in detail.

[@marshaul]

Furthermore, such prohibition also amplifies the feedback loop inherent in violence contagion, by encouraging people who may have originally set out not intending anyone any harm to resort to violence for lack of any legal recourse to very real aggressions (theft, assault, etc.). There is a more subtle aspect too, hinted at by instinctive distrust of the law displayed by so many in communities with high rates of violence. Coupling this method with prohibitions will undermine its efficacy.

[@norajohnson3325]

excellant post and gentelman

[@selfworm]

Nominate him for the nobel prize

[@berendharmsen]

Just a wild stab in the dark here, but: count how many people get shot on average before and after the program started and calculate the ratio? I don't think there is any difficulty in defining whether someone is shot or not, so I would say this is a statistic that is very easy to obtain

[@AdlerAB]

My mistake lol. Thanks. :P

[@lozza1982]

i think it would be good if youtube employed interuptors for these comment sections, so much hate and anger is used in this environment

[@music0cool]

I completely agree with this vid. :) i dont believe in evil, no one is born cruel. there is always a cause of it and we should try to stop that. save the people instead of shunning them.

[@KickoStocks]

@Berend Harmsen I tried! It's the KZbin app :(

[@Namaste1001]

What about government violence and threats of it by our own?