violence

The city's health department wants to send ex-offenders who are trained to be "violence interrupters" to hospitals to talk with victims. Chicago has found such a program prevents repeat injuries.

Napa State Hospital in California added safeguards to protect workers after a psychiatric technician was murdered in 2010. But violence remains a part of daily life at the facility.

Young people, often rival gang members, have increasingly used Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to threaten each other. The practice is called "cyber banging" and it's led to fights and even death.

When a 23-year-old who has tried to kill himself visits family, he must mentally prepare to resist hurting himself with their guns, he says. Gun access can make suicidal impulses harder to fend off.

Dr. Leana Wen came to Baltimore as health commissioner to combat the city's longstanding problems with violence, drug addiction and health disparities. She finds that solutions don't come easy.

Leana Wen, Baltimore's new health commissioner, is trying to apply public health approaches to ameliorate the city's deep-seated problems with poverty, violence and disease.

While doing a profile of a transgender activist in Washington, D.C., NPR's Pam Fessler heard some touching personal stories from trans women trying to adapt to their new lives.