By David Weisburd, Cody W. Telep , Heather Vovak , Taryn Zastrowa , Anthony A. Braga , and Brandon Turchan  

  Can police be trained to treat people in fair and respectful ways, and if so, will this influence evaluations of the police and crime? To answer these questions, we randomly allocated 120 crime hot spots to a procedural justice (PJ) and standard condition (SC) in three cities. Twenty-eight officers were randomly assigned to the conditions. The PJ condition officers received an intensive 5-d training course in the components of PJ (giving voice, showing neutrality, treating people with respect, and evidencing trustworthy motives). We used police self-report surveys to assess whether the training influenced attitudes, systematic social observations to examine impacts on police behavior in the field, and arrests to assess law enforcement actions. We conducted pre and post household surveys to assess resident attitudes toward the police. Impacts on crime were measured using crime incident and citizen-initiated crime call data. The training led to increased knowledge about PJ and more procedurally just behavior in the field as compared with the SC condition. At the same time, PJ officers made many fewer arrests than SC officers. Residents of the PJ hot spots were significantly less likely to perceive police as harassing or using unnecessary force, though we did not find significant differences between the PJ and SC hot spots in perceptions of PJ and police legitimacy. We found a significant relative 14% decline in crime incidents in the PJ hot spots during the experiment.  

Missouri: PNAS, 2022. 6p.

By Eugenia C. South,  John MacDonald,  Vincent Reina,

Importance  The root causes of violent crime in Black urban neighborhoods are structural, including residential racial segregation and concentrated poverty. Previous work suggests that simple and scalable place-based environmental interventions can overcome the legacies of neighborhood disinvestment and have implications for health broadly and crime specifically. Objective  To assess whether structural repairs to the homes of low-income owners are associated with a reduction in nearby crime. Design, Setting, and Participants  This cross-sectional study using difference-in-differences analysis included data from the City of Philadelphia Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP) from January 1, 2006, through April 30, 2013. The unit of analysis was block faces (single street segments between 2 consecutive intersecting streets) with or without homes that received the BSRP intervention. The blocks of homes that received BSRP services were compared with the blocks of eligible homes that were still on the waiting list. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2019, to February 28, 2021. Exposures  The BSRP intervention includes a grant of up to $20 000 provided to low-income owners for structural repairs to electrical, plumbing, heating, and roofing damage. Eligible homeowners must meet income guidelines, which are set by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and vary yearly. Main Outcomes and Measures  The main outcome was police-reported crime across 7 major categories of violent and nonviolent crimes (homicide, assault, burglary, theft, robbery, disorderly conduct, and public drunkenness). Results  A total of 13 632 houses on 6732 block faces received the BSRP intervention. Owners of these homes had a mean (range) age of 56.5 (18-98) years, were predominantly Black (10 952 [78.6%]) or Latino (1658 [11.9%]) individuals, and had a mean monthly income of $993. These census tracts compared with those without BSRP intervention had a substantially larger Black population (49.5% vs 12.2%; |D| = 0.406) and higher unemployment rate (17.3% vs 9.3%; |D| = 0.357). The main regression analysis demonstrated that the addition to a block face of a property that received a BSRP intervention was associated with a 21.9% decrease in the expected count of total crime (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 0.78; 95% CI, 0.76-0.80; P<.001), 19.0% decrease in assault (IRR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.79-0.84; P<.001), 22.6% decrease in robbery (IRR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.75-0.80; P<.001), and 21.9% decrease in homicide (IRR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.71-0.86; P<.001). When restricting the analysis to blocks with properties that had ever received a BSRP intervention, a total crime reduction of 25.4% was observed for each additional property (IRR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.73-0.77; P<.001). A significant dose-dependent decrease in total crime was found such that the magnitude of association increased with higher numbers of homes participating in the BSRP on a block. Conclusions and Relevance  This study found that the BSRP intervention was associated with a modest but significant reduction in crime. These findings suggest that intentional and targeted financial investment in structural, scalable, and sustainable place-based interventions in neighborhoods that are still experiencing the lasting consequences of structural racism and segregation is a vital step toward achieving health equity.

Pennsylvania: JAMA Network Open, 2021. 12p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Edited by Paul Ekblom

In the realm of product design, the concept of crime-proofing everyday products has emerged as a vital consideration. With the objective of enhancing safety and security in mind, designers are exploring innovative ways to deter criminal activities through the very objects we interact with on a daily basis. By integrating elements such as tamper-proof features, anti-theft mechanisms, and user-friendly security measures, these products aim to provide users with a heightened sense of protection and peace of mind. Design Against Crime represents a proactive approach towards creating a more secure environment, where intelligent design serves as the first line of defense against potential threats.

Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012 , 293 pages

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

Herman Goldstein

In his seminal work on problem-oriented policing, Herman Goldstein emphasizes the importance of addressing the root causes of crime and disorder within communities. Goldstein’s book provides a framework for law enforcement agencies to shift their focus from reactive responses to proactive measures aimed at preventing recurring issues.

The core concept of problem-oriented policing lies in identifying specific problems within a community, analyzing the underlying factors contributing to those problems, and developing tailored strategies to mitigate them. By working collaboratively with community members, local organizations, and other stakeholders, law enforcement can implement sustainable solutions that address the root causes of crime and disorder.

Goldstein’s book serves as a guide for police departments looking to adopt a more proactive and community-centered approach to policing. By encouraging officers to engage with the community, gather data on recurring issues, and implement evidence-based strategies, problem-oriented policing offers a promising alternative to traditional law enforcement practices.

Overall, Herman Goldstein’s book on problem-oriented policing provides valuable insights and practical tools for law enforcement agencies seeking to build safer and more resilient communities through proactive problem-solving strategies.

NY. McGraw-Hill. 1990. 221p.

Rand Corp.

In recent years, a number of serious conflicts between police officers and members of the communities they serve have raised the importance of effective community-police relations in the United States. Building on its policing and community-based participatory research portfolio, RAND designed a community-based dialogue to address this problem. The dialogue is designed to start a conversation about these issues among community stakeholders, including police, government agencies, social service providers, resident representatives, and other concerned organizations. RAND has also designed a youth-focused dialogue to address specific scenarios most relevant to youth-police interactions.

By: Kesha Moore, Ryan Tom, Jackie O’Neil

Promoting public safety is serious business and requires precise, thoughtful analysis, not distortions designed to evoke fear and anger.

We model the contextual analysis of crime data needed to guide an effective approach to improving public safety.

Unsubstantiated crime narratives prevent us from understanding the factors contributing to recent increases in violent crime and undermine our investments in evidence-based solutions. Misdiagnosing the causes of crime compromises public safety, similar to when a doctor misdiagnoses you with the wrong ailment and subsequently prescribes medication that fails to address your underlying issues while exacerbating your condition.

Politicians have lobbed disparaging attacks against criminal justice reforms despite contradictory evidence. Public officials, regardless of party affiliation, create fear-mongering narratives about why crimes are happening to convince the public that their strategy is correct. Whether it is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) incorrectly arguing that crime would increase without aggressive prosecutors and increased police funding, or New York City’s Democratic Mayor, Eric Adams, blaming the city’s bail reforms for increases in crime, public actors disparage criminal justice reforms based on false and inaccurate premises. These political actors engage in this rhetoric despite research studies proving their assertions are flatly wrong. This rhetoric leads to harmful and counterproductive policies that aim to increase policing and incarceration, which particularly harm Black people. Unfortunately, the pattern of peddling harmful “tough-on-crime” narratives is not new, but a cyclical component of U.S. history.

Promoting public safety is serious business that requires precise, thoughtful analysis, not distortions designed to evoke fear and anger. Crime is a complex and varied phenomenon, and solutions to address crime must be grounded in data, equity, and fairness. The need for accurate assessments is critical, lest false narratives and distorted data contribute to the harming of communities by law enforcement, just as they did in the War on Drugs. Here, we examine three false narratives presented by politicians and the media to explain the recent increase in homicides nationwide: the expansion of bail reform, practices of progressive prosecutors, and calls to defund the police. Our analysis reveals that the empirical data contradicts these narratives. Our data substantiates other reasons for a spike in homicide rates: pandemic-induced instability and econmic inequality.

Washington, DC: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 2020. 41p.

By Mike Males

California is not “defunding the police” nor implementing lenient criminal justice reforms – just the opposite. State spending on law enforcement has risen sharply, even after adjustments for inflation and population growth. The odds of being imprisoned per arrest have risen to near-record heights. However, despite record spending on California law enforcement agencies in recent years, one of the core measures of law enforcement effectiveness— crime clearance rates — has fallen to historically low levels. An agency’s clearance rate is the share of Part I violent and property crimes2 that are considered solved after law enforcement makes an arrest. Over the past three decades, these clearance rates fell by 41%, from a 22.3% clearance rate in 1990 to 13.2% in 2022, which equates to fewer than one in seven crimes solved (Figure 1, Table 1). California’s decline in overall clearance rates has been driven by falling property felony clearances (-59%), though the solve rate for violent felonies also fell during the 1990 – 2022 period (-14%).

San Francisco, Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. 2024, 8pg