The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) funded CNA to work with the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing to develop a series of Smart Policing Initiative (SPI) Problem-Oriented Guides for Police. The purpose of these guides is to provide the law enforcement community with useful guidance, knowledge, and best practices related to key problem-oriented policing and SPI principles and practices. These guides add to the existing collection of Problem-Oriented Guides for Police.
This guide addresses the particular problem of retaliatory violent disputes which includes retaliatory gang violence, retaliatory family feuds, and retaliatory interpersonal violence. Particular attention is given to those disputes that result in homicide, serious weapon violence, and serious damage to property. Although some of what is discussed here applies to disputes between romantic partners and their surrogates, this guide does not directly address retaliatory domestic violence. Retaliatory violent disputes are but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to violence.
This guide begins by describing the problem of retaliatory violent disputes and reviewing factors that increase the risks of such disputes. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local retaliatory violent disputes problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem from evaluative research and police practice. Although the guide draws heavily on the authors’ research and practice findings from the BJA/CNA Smart Policing Initiative-funded initiative in Rochester, New York—one of the few police initiatives explicitly focused on retaliatory violent disputes—the information in this guide is also supported by the broader body of research and practice on retaliatory violent disputes.
