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The End of Violence
Eliminating the World's Most Dangerous Epidemic
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Apr 21, 2026
- Page Count
- 336 pages
- Publisher
- Little, Brown and Company
- ISBN-13
- 9780316520393
Price
$14.99Price
$19.99 CADFormat
Format:
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Violence is often described as a social issue, a moral failing, or a universal human instinct. But in fact, argues epidemiologist and violence prevention expert Dr. Gary Slutkin, violence is disease, infecting people and societies via the same process as any other epidemic. When a shooting occurs in a school, a political figure is assassinated, or an authoritarian leader invades a sovereign nation, it's not just a tragic event—it's an outbreak.
As an infectious disease physician, Slutkin helped end the epidemics of cholera, tuberculosis, and AIDS in Africa and Asia with the World Health Organization. This led him to uncover the science of how violence enters our brains, replicates, and gets transmitted from one person to another.
In THE END OF VIOLENCE, Dr. Slutkin offers a proven alternative to the failed strategies of deterrence and incarceration: a time-tested public health approach that reduces exposure, interrupts transmission, and prevents the disease from spreading.
Using this playbook, Dr. Slutkin’s organization, Cure Violence Global, has dramatically reduced or eliminated violence in some of the deadliest neighborhoods in Chicago, Baltimore, New York City, Los Angeles, and across central America. Similar methods have been used to end civil wars, avert a nuclear conflict, and curtail gender-based violence around the world.
From mass shootings, to state tyranny, to genocide and war, it’s all the same disease – and it also requires the same cure. We already have the tools we need to protect ourselves, heal our communities, and end all forms of violence. It’s time to use them.
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“Dr. Slutkin leads us down an entirely new path to a world beyond violence. This is an inspiring journey that leads us to see problems in a new light, and to tackle them in new ways.”Nicholas Kristof, two- time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist New York Times Op-Ed Columnist
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“Gary Slutkin is one of the most important thinkers and activists in the vital effort to understand and reduce violent crime….an invaluable contribution.”Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
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“Dr. Slutkin can predict violence and see it move from one person to another, like a contagion. And like disease transmission, he shows violence can be interrupted, and potentially cured. He gives hope to what has always felt like a hopeless issue.”Dr. Sanjay Gupta, associate Chief of Neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital, Chief Medical Correspondent For CNN
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“No more pressing challenge faces us today than the epidemic of violence. Surprisingly, there is a cure. In this all-important book, epidemiologist Gary Slutkin brings 25 years of deep experience and knowledge to show us how we can use the paradigm of public health to cure the world of this deadly epidemic. This book could not be more relevant or useful.”William Ury, New York Times bestselling Author of Getting to Yes, Co-founder of the Harvard Program on Negotiation and the International Negotiation Network with Jimmy Carter
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“Dr. Slutkin is revolutionizing the field entirely. This book does more than explain his discovery that violence is a communicable disease—it also offers extremely practical applications. The world needs this book now to change the tide of violence and build a world of peace.”Rima Salah, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations
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“The End of Violence is a visionary work. A must-read, not only for practitioners but also for everyday people who care about their families, their futures, and those around them.”Dr. Susan L. Bissell, Founding Director, Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, former Global Chief, Child Protection, UNICEF
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“Violence is globally ubiquitous—across countries and continents, class, race, ethnicity, and gender—because, like so many diseases, it doesn’t discriminate. Which is why The End of Violence is so important. With its evidence-based solutions that can reach hundreds of millions of people, Dr. Slutkin’s work can improve the health and lives of people all around the world.”Chris Elias, president, Global Development, Gates Foundation
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“Gives us a new way of understanding violence and a proven way of stopping it. His book will help us be better parents, keep our families safe, and help our children have a better future free of violence.”Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action
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“Dr. Slutkin is the person who illuminated, in both theory and practice, the science of how violence acts as a contagious disease. This book shows how he came to that realization, how it works, and what we need to do now. The results documented in the United States, Latin America, and beyond are truly remarkable. Dr. Slutkin gives us hope by providing a new path to make violence prevention a reality in the very communities most heavily impacted by this scourge.”James Mercy, former director of the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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“Twenty-five years ago, I sought out Gary Slutkin while searching for a solution to the gun violence we experienced in Los Angeles. I got far more than I hoped for. The methods he describes in his groundbreaking new book helped reduce our gun violence to historic lows and save thousands of lives.”Charlie Beck, former chief of police, Los Angeles Police Department
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“Dr. Slutkin’s revelation of violence as a disease is nothing short of a paradigm shift. Violence has been misdiagnosed and mismanaged for too long. The science and movement in this book will move us forward as a species.”Peter Piot, founding executive director of UNAIDS and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus
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“The End of Violence shows how urgent it is to see and manage violence in an entirely new way. For leaders responsible for public safety, these lessons are truly a matter of life or death. But we all need to wake up fast to these innovative insights about all forms of violence—from community violence to police violence to political violence—if this country is to have a chance.”Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of history, Princeton University, and founder and director of the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project
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“This book does more than explain Dr. Slutkin’s discovery that violence is a communicable disease—it also offers extremely practical applications. We’re overdue to take its lessons and apply them everywhere: in our neighborhoods, in our cities, and around the world. The world needs this book now to change the tide of violence and build a world of peace.”Rima Salah, former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations
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“Science sometimes totally upends our view of the world—from our revolving around the sun, to invisible disease-causing germs, to understanding violence differently than we had: as something to treat as if it were an infectious disease and cure with a new approach. This is the type of discovery that can change the course of human health and even human history.”Dr. Al Sommer, dean emeritus, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
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“Dr. Slutkin sees things differently than most of us, and the result is that violence has a new diagnosis and now belongs in a new category—a health epidemic. I have no doubt that Dr. Slutkin’s discovery and its practical applications will result in a global campaign to stop violence and that it will succeed. This book takes us on his path to discovery and gives us the science and the way forward.”Céline Gounder, senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation; internist, infectious disease specialist, and epidemiologist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital
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“As the longest-serving director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s programs and research agency and cochair of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, I have encountered many approaches to reducing violence and improving life in our communities. Dr. Slutkin’s approach changed the way we see things and much of what we do in a more fundamental way. This book shows us something brand new—something we didn’t know before about violence—and how our future may be more hopeful than we thought.”Laurie Robinson, former assistant attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice
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“In a country driven by violence, it’s difficult to see our carnage for what it is: a disease. Pay close attention to the work Slutkin has done to separate violence from politics, poverty, and morality, and you will never see it the same way again.”Rafael Alvarez, author of The Fountain of Highlandtown and former staff writer for The Wire
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“We have needed a new solution to violence and forced displacement for decades. Now we have a breakthrough. The End of Violence gives us a whole new way of seeing and helping to solve these previously intractable problems. An urgent read.”Mark Connolly, senior advisor, UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean
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“A book that will help each of us feel safer and more able to protect the people around us. To read this book is to have hope—and also the tools to be safe and help change things.”Leon Andrews, president and CEO of Equal Measure and former director of race, equity, and leadership, National League of Cities
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