Research in Brief: Global Concepts, Local Contexts: A Case Study of International Criminal Justice Policy Transfer in Violence Reduction

The city of Glasgow, Scotland, has long been plagued by gang-related violence, especially in the east end of the city, which is an area of high social deprivation and related problems. The violent image and reputation of the city goes back generations, leading to commentators and the media labeling Glasgow as the crime capital of Europe.1 In 2008, faced with the apparent failure to deal with the problems of violence, the police in Glasgow, in partnership with statutory agencies, engaged in a process of policy transfer of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (US CIRV). They formed a multiagency strategy, the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (Glasgow CIRV), to tackle violence by targeting gangs and gang members both collectively and individually and encouraging them to change their lifestyle. Glasgow CIRV operated for a period of three years (June 2008–July 2011) and achieved limited success in reducing violence and weapon-carrying offences; however, in contrast to US CIRV, which is still in operation, the project failed to achieve long-term sustainability.