The End of Violence

A paradigm-shifting new approach to ending the epidemic of violence in our lifetime, using the same epidemic control playbook that has rid the world of other contagious diseases.

“Leads us down an entirely new path to a world beyond violence” —Nicholas Kristoff

Violence is often described as a social issue, a moral failing, or a universal human instinct. But in fact, argues epidemiologist and violence prevention expert Dr. Gary Slutkin, violence is disease, infecting people and societies via the same process as any other epidemic. When a shooting occurs in a school, a political figure is assassinated, or an authoritarian leader invades a sovereign nation, it’s not just a tragic event—it’s an outbreak.

As an infectious disease physician, Slutkin helped end the epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis, and AIDS in Africa and Asia with the World Health Organization. This led him to uncover the science of how violence enters our brains, replicates, and gets transmitted from one person to another.

In The End of Violence, Dr. Slutkin offers a proven alternative to the failed strategies of deterrence and incarceration: a time-tested public health approach that reduces exposure, interrupts transmission, and prevents the disease from spreading.

Using this playbook, Dr. Slutkin’s organization, Cure Violence Global, has dramatically reduced or eliminated violence in some of the deadliest neighborhoods in Chicago, Baltimore, New York City, Los Angeles, and across central America. Similar methods have been used to end civil wars, avert a nuclear conflict, and curtail gender-based violence around the world.

From mass shootings, to state tyranny, to genocide and war, it’s all the same disease—and it also requires the same cure. We already have the tools we need to protect ourselves, heal our communities, and end all forms of violence. It’s time to use them.