I'm not quite sure I fully buy into it. Crime has been steadily declining all over the Western world since the '90s, with a few notable exceptions like Baltimore post-BLM, and so the entire VRU concept may be specious. New York has seen its murder rate plunge 75% since its height in 1990 despite not employing this technique, which is a larger drop than Glasgow experienced. Perhaps doing nothing would have been just as effective? Or perhaps this:

>This meant ramping up traditional penal measures – increased stop-and-search and stricter sentencing for knife possession – alongside preventive measures in line with the public health approach.

Resulted in all of the most recalcitrant offenders being put behind bars right at the onset of the program, leaving behind only those people more amenable to non-violence.

Or put another way, when the doctor mentions seeing constant repeated faces in her ER:

>Often, the same people would come back through the accident and emergency departments again and again, repeated victims and perpetrators of violent attacks.

Would simply locking up every one of those people have produced a similar or greater drop in violent crime compared to the VRU approach? Is the "violent interceptor" and community outreach and counselors and all that simply gilding a lily?

Also:

>The incident has stayed with her, an indication of how bad the situation in her city had become.

Well that or it's 1890s Germany. The Junkers loved to scar each other on the face with their dueling swords, as a way to prove their manhood and as a mark of inclusion in the aristocratic orders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dueling_scar

Some cultures get barbed wire tattoos around their arm, others a superficial slashing wound to the face. Tomato tomato ....that expression really doesn't work in text.