“Violence has been misdiagnosed. And there’s a misdiagnosis that has caused us to not be able to control it as we could.” — Dr. Gary Slutkin

Human violence appears ubiquitous. In Iran. In Gaza. In Ukraine. In Sudan. In American cities and homes. So widespread, indeed, that it seems naturally hardwired into us. Our species-being, so to speak.

But, for Dr. Gary Slutkin, there is nothing inevitable about human violence. Slutkin — an epidemiologist who spent years fighting cholera, tuberculosis, and AIDS in Africa before focusing his medical mind on violence — argues that violence is neither a character flaw nor a moral failing. Rather than being baked into our natures, Slutkin sees violence as a contagious disease. It meets the clinical definition of a plague, he says. The more violent our homes, communities, media, politics, the more virally it spreads.

Slutkin’s new book, The End of Violence: Eliminating the World’s Most Dangerous Epidemic, makes the case that violence has been misdiagnosed for centuries. We analyse it as a crime problem, a character problem, an inter-state problem. So we punish, incarcerate and bomb. But none of these approaches confront the contagion. This can only be done, Slutkin argues, with what he calls “violence interrupters” — people from within the infected community who find the most at-risk individuals and cool things down before they escalate. Communities that have applied this approach have seen reductions in violence of 40 to 70 percent, Slutkin boasts, with Cherry Hill, one of Chicago’s most dangerous neighbourhoods, experiencing 450 days without a shooting.

There will be a time, he promises, when the plague of human violence will be mostly overcome. I hope Dr. Slutkin is correct. But suspect that his brave new violence-free world, like Huxley’s, might be simultaneously utopian and dystopian.
Five Takeaways

• Violence Meets the Clinical Definition of a Contagious Disease. Not a metaphor. Violence causes more of itself — one event leads to another in a home, a community, a war. The more exposed you are, the more likely you are to do it. Susceptibility is determined by humiliation, grievance, social pain. The operating system is the same as measles or COVID.

• Violence Has Been Misdiagnosed. We treat it as a moral failing. We punish, incarcerate, bomb. None of these interrupt the contagion. The correct diagnosis changes everything: you interrupt the spread, treat the susceptibility, cool it down. You don’t punish a cholera patient for drinking contaminated water.

• Violence Interrupters. People from the same community, who speak the same language, who have often been involved in violence themselves. They find the most at-risk individuals and intervene before the next event. Communities using this approach have seen reductions of 40 to 70 percent. Cherry Hill, Chicago: 450 days without a shooting.

• Authoritarian Violence Disorder. Chapter eight of The End of Violence. Authoritarian leadership is itself epidemic violence: spreading it into its own population through threats, raids, approval and scripting of others’ violence, and abroad through war. Violence doesn’t know borders. Grievance and humiliation increase susceptibility. Trump’s Iran war is authoritarianism causing war.

• Uganda: 85 Percent Drop with No Medication. In 1987, a third of Uganda’s population had a 100 percent lethal disease. Slutkin’s team dropped the rate 85 percent with behavior change alone — no medicines. TB was dropping long before medication existed. We do not need pharmacological intervention to eliminate violence. We need the right people doing the right interventions.

About the Guest

Dr. Gary Slutkin is an epidemiologist, founder of Cure Violence Global, and the author of The End of Violence: Eliminating the World’s Most Dangerous Epidemic (2026).

References

The End of Violence by Gary Slutkin (2026)
Cure Violence Global: cvg.org

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:

00:00:31 Is violence natural? Or is it a contagious disease?
00:06:25 Steven Pinker and the epidemic in retreat
00:11:31 Trump, ICE, and authoritarian violence
00:15:00 Authoritarian violence disorder
00:22:00 Violence interrupters
00:26:00 Cherry Hill: 450 days without a shooting
00:35:00 Uganda: 85 percent drop with behavior change alone
00:47:40 Elimination, not eradication
00:50:42 No medication needed