In Chicago in the United States, violent gang crime is being treated successfully as if it was a contagious disease. Actress Linda Robson, whose son was a close friend of recent knife victim Ben Kinsella, visited the city for The One Show.
I am a mum, not a politician, but I am scared for my kids on the streets and I am scared for everyone's kids.
We do not seem to have the answers at home - so what tips and help can we get from Chicago?
It may seem odd but the first person I visited was not a top cop but one of the city's leading doctors.
The CeaseFire project was founded by Dr Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist from the University of Illinois, Chicago who worked for 10 years on infectious diseases in Africa. He treats violence like a disease.
"Violence behaves exactly like any other epidemic, and the way epidemics are reversed is by preventing transmission and changing of the behavioural norms," he said.
"That is how we have changed behaviour around smoking. If this were five or 10 years ago one of us might light up a cigarette...why isn't it normal anymore? It's not because of the police, it's because of social pressure."
Ex-hard men
CeaseFire tries to harness that social pressure.
The project takes ex-gang members and uses them as peacemakers to stop the "transmission" of violence. After all, they know the streets better than anyone.
The man who turns these hardened cons into so-called "violence interrupters" is former gang member Tio Hardiman.
Their efforts helped to transform a district called "K town".
Trusted by the community because of their reputation as former hard men, they were able to stop acts of violence.
Violence interrupters are former criminals who are seen as "credible messengers" by the kids on the street and they act as mentors to youngsters identified as most likely to commit violent crime.
"You gotta use a lot profanity, a lot of aggression and a lot of authority sometimes"
Tio, director of gang mediation and community organising with CeaseFire, explained how he recruits violence interrupters.
"What I do is I go out and interview these guys and get a feel for their spirit, because you can't preach to these young guys, they're gonna tell you to get a hell off their face."
As one ex-gang member turned peacemaker told me, "We were part of the problem, now we're part of the solution."
Tio explained that the violence interrupters can block outbreaks of gang warfare because they have access to areas where the police or outreach workers fear to tread.
"The violence interrupters are known on the street, the first thing they gonna say is, 'Look man, if you shoot this guy, everybody is going to know about and you are putting your family at risk'.
"You gotta use a lot profanity, a lot of aggression and a lot of authority sometimes."
"I can give examples, look what happened to me I have been shot, I have been to prison"
After my son's friend Ben Kinsella was killed last month in North London, like many, my initial reaction was "lock 'em up and throw away the key".
I did not know what to think talking to ex-gang members, the very people that commit the crimes we are trying to stop.
Someone who can relate directly to those lessons from the streets is Orlando Lopez, who is being steered away from violence by ex-gang member Zale Hoddenbach.
Zale told me: "I can reveal the truth to them, I can relate to them - no one else. I can tell them the lies that were told to me.
"Someone from the outside with a college master's degree is not going to be able to offer them that.
"I can give examples, look what happened to me I have been shot, I have been to prison - nobody was there for me."
Street respect
It seems to be working for Orlando, who said: "I respect him [Zale] for what he is doing because he has been through it - I believe his words more than anybody else because his words is the truth."
Seeing Zale's effect on Orlando convinced me the Chicago strategy could work, and has given me a little bit more hope that people can turn things around.
Gary Slutkin just seemed to make sense. I had never thought of knife crime or gun crime as a disease.
As he told me: "We're getting between a 40% & 70% reduction in violence in the areas we're targeting.
"I can see that London and Manchester in the UK and other cities having some variation of this."
He added: "We prevent the spread of the infection by changing the thinking from, 'I have to do it' to 'it's a bad idea'.
"It actually can be done if you can get the right people who can get in their head."
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