Pittsburgh will study gang violence to combat climbing murder rate

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh will spend $200,000 on a gang violence study in hopes of curbing the city’s murder rate within six months.

The city has already passed last year’s murder total of 52 and is on pace to top the 64 killings seen in 2005.

The study by Pitt’s school of social work is part of the larger Pittsburgh Initiative to Reduce Crime. That program rounds up the city’s worst criminals and confronts them with the relatives of crime victims and other neighborhood leaders in hopes they’ll change their ways.

If they don’t, police target the killers and their associates unless the gangs police themselves. The approach is said to have worked in other cities, including Cincinnati and Boston.