"... is also looking for the equivalent of a cure. The way public-health doctors think of curing disease when there are no drug treatments is by changing behavior. Smoking is the most obvious example. Cigarettes are still around. And there’s no easy remedy for lung cancer or emphysema. So the best way to deal with the diseases associated with smoking is to get people to stop smoking. In Uganda, Sl-tkin and his colleagues tried to change behavior by encouraging people to have fewer sexual partners and to use condoms. CeaseFire has a visible public-communications campaign, which includes billboards and bumper stickers (which read, “Stop. Killing. People.”). It also holds rallies — or what it calls “responses” — at the sites of killings. But much research suggests that peer or social pressure is the most effective way to change behavior."
The author suggests social reconstruction as a potential solution to the issue of gang-related violence. To strike the problem at its source, the culture itself needs to be treated. No amount of technology, information, and preventative resources will matter if the behavior is still self-destructive. "Punishment doesn't drive behavior. Copying and modeling and the social expectations of your peers is what drives your behavior."