Is De-policing the Cause of the Spike in Urban Violence? Comment on Cassell

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 142-143
Author(s):  
Richard Rosenfeld
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Police Legitimacy ◽  
Urban Violence ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Disadvantaged Communities ◽  
Police Presence ◽  
The Impact ◽  
American Cities

Paul Cassell maintains that de-policing was a major cause of the spike in violent crime many American cities experienced during the summer of 2020. While plausible, Professor Cassell’s argument is unconvincing because it fails to explain why de-policing did not produce a rise in property crime, and it overstates the impact of policing on crime. Nor does he present evidence of a drop in police presence and activity large enough to produce such a huge increase in violence. Professor Cassell’s criticism of the argument that diminished police legitimacy caused the violence spike is more persuasive. He and I agree that the explanation for the spike lies somewhere in the nexus between the police and the disadvantaged communities they serve more or less effectively.

The Impact of Drug Enforcement on Crime: An Investigation of the Opportunity Cost of Police Resources

2001 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 989-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Benson ◽  
Ian Sebastian Leburn ◽  
David W. Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Crime Rate ◽  
Sharp Increase ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Drug Laws ◽  
Drug Enforcement ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Impact

The conventional wisdom among the law enforcement community is that drug use causes crime and that stringent enforcement of drug laws is an effective tool to combat property and violent crime. Previous research by some of these authors found that a sharp increase in drug enforcement in Florida during 1984–1989 resulted in a reallocation of police resources which reduced the effectiveness of property crime enforcement and increased the property crime rate. Some have suspected that this result is the product of the very large increase in drug enforcement during this time period and that under “normal” circumstances greater drug enforcement would not result in higher property crime. This paper rebuts that suspicion.

The Effectiveness of Community Policing in Reducing Urban Violence

2002 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Community Policing ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Urban Violence ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Inverse Effect ◽  
Proactive Policing ◽  
American Cities

In recent years, sharp declines in violent crime rates have been recorded across major American cities. During this time period, many police departments have shifted from a traditional reactive form of policing to a community-oriented approach. It is unclear whether these changes have any causal relationship with the control or reduction in violent crime. To examine this issue, this study used the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, and city-level census data to examine the economic and political determinants of robbery and homicide rates in 164 American cities. Findings indicate that community policing had little effect on the control or the decline in violent crime. Proactive policing strategies related to arrest had an inverse effect on violent crime measures and were related to reductions in violent crime over time. Implications of these findings for criminal justice policy are discussed.

Understanding the Role of Vaping in Criminal Behavior Among Adolescents

2021 ◽  
pp. 073401682110019
Author(s):  
Anthony G. Vito ◽  
Gregory C. Rocheleau ◽  
Jonathan Intravia
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Marijuana Use ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Past ◽  
12Th Grade ◽  
Monitoring The Future ◽  
The Impact

This study examines the link between ever vaped, vaped just flavoring in the past 30 days, and vaped just flavoring frequently in the past 30 days and violent crime, property crime, marijuana use, and smoking. Using the 2017 Monitoring the Future form two data set and propensity score matching, the researchers are better able to consider the impact of the vaping behavior among similarly situated 12th-grade adolescents. Results illustrate that there are no vaping behaviors linked with violent crime or property crime among similarly situated adolescents. In contrast, results show that adolescents who have ever vaped, vaped just flavoring, or vaped just flavoring frequently are linked with marijuana use and smoking. Limitations and future research implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Environmental Policy as Social Policy? The Impact of Childhood Lead Exposure on Crime

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Wolpaw Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Lead Exposure ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Traits ◽  
Sensitivity Tests ◽  
Clean Air ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Childhood lead exposure can lead to psychological traits that are strongly associated with aggressive and criminal behavior. In the late 1970s in the United States, lead was removed from gasoline under the Clean Air Act. I use the state-specific reductions in lead exposure that resulted from this removal to identify the effect of childhood lead exposure on crime rates. The elasticity of violent crime with respect to childhood lead exposure is estimated to be 0.8, and this result is robust to numerous sensitivity tests. Mixed evidence supports an effect of lead exposure on murder rates, and little evidence indicates an effect of lead on property crime. Overall, I find that the reduction in childhood lead exposure in the late 1970s and early 1980s was responsible for significant declines in violent crime in the 1990s and may cause further declines in the future. Moreover, the social value of the reductions in violent crime far exceeds the cost of the removal of lead from gasoline.

The impact of crime on apartment prices in Hamburg, Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan de Graaff ◽  
Joachim Zietz
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Real Estate Prices ◽  
High Crime ◽  
Quantitative Impact ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of crime on apartment prices for Hamburg, Germany, for the years 2012 to 2017. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a panel data setting with fixed effects estimators and temporal lags to moderate the endogeneity concerns related to crime. The authors consider the effect of total crime, violent and property crime and some sub-categories of crime. Findings The estimates show that it takes two to three years for prices to react, with the longer run elasticity reaching −0.12 for total crime, −0.15 for property crime and −0.06 for violent crime. The elasticities are much larger in high-crime areas (−0.22 for total crime, −0.28 and −0.09 for property and violent crime) and elevated also in low-income areas. Social implications The finding that property crime matters more in terms of quantitative impact for housing values than violent crime provides reasonable grounds for rethinking the resource allocation of public spending on crime clearance and prevention in Germany. Far more emphasis on preventing property crime appears in order and especially so in the lower income or higher crime areas, which are significantly more affected by crime and in particular property crime than those in high income or low crime areas. Originality/value The estimates for Hamburg provide the first detailed results of the impact of crime on real estate prices in Germany. It is also the first study for Continental Europe using panel data.

scholarly journals The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime over the Last Two Decades

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J Donohue ◽  
Steven Levitt
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Violent Crime ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Crime Rates ◽  
Crime Drop ◽  
Crime Decline ◽  
Out Of Sample ◽  
Out Of Sample Prediction ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Donohue and Levitt (2001) presented evidence that the legalization of abortion in the early 1970s played an important role in the crime drop of the 1990s. That paper concluded with a strong out-of-sample prediction regarding the next two decades: “When a steady state is reached roughly twenty years from now, the impact of abortion will be roughly twice as great as the impact felt so far. Our results suggest that all else equal, legalized abortion will account for persistent declines of 1% a year in crime over the next two decades.” Estimating parallel specifications to the original paper, but using the seventeen years of data generated after that paper was written, we find strong support for the prediction and the broad hypothesis, while illuminating some previously unrecognized patterns of crime and arrests. We estimate that overall crime fell 17.5% from 1998 to 2014 due to legalized abortion—a decline of 1% per year. From 1991 to 2014, the violent and property crime rates each fell by 50%. Legalized abortion is estimated to have reduced violent crime by 47% and property crime by 33% over this period, and thus can explain most of the observed crime decline.

scholarly journals The Impact of Crime Victimisation on Individual Well-Being: Evidence from Australia

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malathi Velamuri ◽  
Steven Stillman
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Male Victims ◽  
Crime Victimization ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Fixed Effects Regression ◽  
The Impact

This paper examines the impact of being a victim of violent or property crime on labour market outcomes and general well-being using longitudinal data from the nationally representative Household Income and Labour Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) survey. We estimate fixed effects regression models that examine changes in outcomes for individuals before/after victimisation relative to changes in outcomes over time for non-victims. Our results highlight considerable heterogeneity in the causal impact of crime victimisation: (I) the impacts of violent crime victimisation are stronger and more wide-ranging than those of property crime victimisation; (2) male victims of violem crime experience poorer employment prospects following victimisation; (3) older victims of violent crime report a deterioration in mental health for two years after the event; (4) women face reduced, persistent prospects of marriage/co-habitation following crime victimization; and (5) there is strong evidence of a negative impact of victimisation on life satisfaction measures but these effects do not persist.

scholarly journals The effect of target, catchment, and comparison site operationalization on CCTV impact evaluations: methodological considerations from a case study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Kronkvist
Keyword(s):  
Violent Crime ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Property Crime ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Objectives To examine the extent to which different operationalizations of target, displacement, and comparison sites affect the interpretation of a CCTV impact evaluation. Methods Different operationalizations are used to examine change in property and violent crime before and after CCTV was introduced in a residential neighbourhood in Malmö, Sweden, using paired t tests, odds ratio effect sizes and weighted displacement quotients. Results Despite most results being non-significant as a result of low statistical power, different operationalizations appear to produce varying results. This issue is most prominent for target sites and property crime while it is less so for catchment and comparison sites, and violent crime outcomes. Conclusion Valid operationalizations of research areas are highly important for CCTV impact evaluations and may affect the study outcome. Future research with access to larger data sets is encouraged to elaborate on these findings and further analyse the impact of measurement choices on experimental outcomes.

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