Global concepts, local contexts:a case study of international criminal justice policy transfer in violence reduction

Glasgow has long experienced the issue of gang-related violence, especially in the east end of the city, an area of high social deprivation and related problems. Faced with apparent failure to deal with the problems of violence, in 2008, the police in Glasgow, in partnership with other statutory agencies, engaged in a process of policy transfer of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (US CIRV). They formed a multi-agency strategy, the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (Glasgow CIRV), to tackle violence by targeting gangs and gang members both collectively and individually, to encourage them to change their lifestyle. Glasgow CIRV operated for a period of three years (June 2008-July 2011), with some success in reducing violence and weapon carrying offences, however, in contrast to US CIRV, which is still in operation, it failed to achieve long-term sustainability. This article is based on doctoral research carried out by the author and was an in-depth case study of the policy transfer between US CIRV and Glasgow CIRV, initially guided by the question; ‘to what extent could the apparent long-term failure of Glasgow CIRV be explained by the policy transfer process?’ The model of policy transfer developed by Dolowitz and Marsh (1996 and 2000) was used to provide the theoretical and empirical framework to analyse the processes, mechanisms, and outcomes of the transfer of CIRV from Cincinnati to Glasgow. The transfer process was found to be a direct copy of the US CIRV project by Glasgow CIRV at the outset, however; it quickly became apparent that this process changed to one of emulation, due to differences, including the local context and legal constraints. <br/