重口味SM

Solving Toronto's gun problem: U of T researcher draws on gang experience in Toronto Star op-ed

Photo of police car
Adam Ellis, a U of T researcher who once belonged to a street gang, addresses the city's public health approach to reducing gun violence in a Toronto Star op-ed (photo by Rick Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

In response to escalating gun violence in Toronto last year, the city adopted a public health approach to gun violence. That includes a version of the Interrupters program, which has been used in Chicago. The program recruits ex-gang members to intervene with young people to negotiate non-violent solutions to conflict. 

But Adam Ellis, a 重口味SM researcher who was once a gang member who carried a gun for protection, writes in the Toronto Star that there are 鈥渘o definitive studies鈥 that support such an approach.

鈥淔irst, would former gang members have changed my mind about violence? Probably not. Did you listen to anyone when you were a teenager?鈥 writes Ellis, who is working on his PhD at U of T's Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies.

鈥淲e need to start from zero, conduct research and bring the best thinkers to the table [on this issue]. I mean, if we can put people into space can we not find new and innovative ways of reducing violence?鈥 

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