A leading epidemiologist and violence prevention expert “leads us down an entirely new path to a world beyond violence” (Nicholas Kristoff), with a bold new theory of how violence infects a society, and a hopeful vision for eradicating it with the same playbook used to combat contagious disease.
Violence is often described as a social issue, a moral failing, or an innate human instinct. But in fact, argues Dr. Gary Slutkin, violence is a contagion that infects a society like a disease.
This isn't a metaphor. In THE END OF VIOLENCE, Dr. Slutkin draws on the expertise gleaned from 40+ years on the frontlines fighting deadly epidemics to reveal that violence operates according to the same predictable logic as every other contagious disease, initially infecting a small number of carriers then spreading from host to host. When a shooting occurs in a neighborhood, it's not just a tragic event—it's patient zero in an outbreak.
Through compelling stories ranging from the streets of Chicago, to war-torn villages in the Ukraine and Syria, to mass shootings in suburban America, THE END OF VIOLENCE offers a hopeful alternative to the failed strategies of deterrence and incarceration: a proven public health approach that interrupts transmission, changes behavior, and inoculates against future infection. Whether giving water to a child with diarrhea or providing a safe interruption to a domestic abuser, these methods focus on curing rather than punishing, and can be used to protect ourselves, heal our communities, and end the global epidemic of violence during our lifetime.
