Week #13 Flashcards
How has NYC changed in regards to crime and public policy?
o NYC in the 1970s o Urban decay o The whole city was a mess o Crime was beginning to sky rocket • Violent crime rates got very high • Crack Epidemic was big influence • The city decides to lock as many people up as possible • But there is a vacuum left and the people that step in aren’t 20 years old with reason they are 16
How did Rudy Giuliani respond to the urban decay?
• Rudy Giuliani, NYC Mayor in 1992/93
o Instituted a new renewal of the NYC police department
o Computerized all crime data, creating COMSTAT data system
• Keeping track of all of this crime and data
o Homicide stated to decline
Broken windows philosophy went along with this
• We no longer let people pee against houses, graffiti on subway
• All these things that would get you a fine at best, now suddenly got you 24 hours in jail
o The Giuliani administration took great credit for this, had a zero tolerance policy
What is the broken windows philosophy?
- Idea is that if you let things fall into decay where people feel that nothing matters, there is a sense of disorder that’s set out as fear
- And regular citizens are fearful, and potential offenders feel nothing matters
- One broken window means more broken windows, graffiti attracts more graffiti
- The article was written in 1982
Why should Guilian take all the credit?
• It came down everywhere, not as much as NYC but it did decline everywhere in US, including Canada
What are potential explanations of the drop in crime in the US?
- Changes in US Criminal Justice System
- Increased incarceration
- Changes in policing strategies
- Success getting guns of the street
- Concurrent Events
- Improved economy
- Legalized Abortion
- Crack is Wack movements
Is violent crime going down?
Violence in Police Data, ER Data and Victim Surveys Denmark ,1995-2014
o Violence is coming down both in ER Data and Victim Surveys
o No one really knows why crime is dropping
o Every justice minister will take credit for it
What are crime control theologies?
Walker, Conservative and Liberal Theology
o Called Theology because no one can really prove that they’re right with crime rates going up and down
What is conservative theology?
- Emphasizes declining morality, lack of self control
- Skeptical about role of government
- Criminals are bad and must be punished
- All we need is more punishment: Refuse to acknowledge failure of punishment to reduce crime
- Say it hasn’t been done right or done enough
What is liberal theology?
- Emphasizes poverty, inequality, social conditions
- Governments can solve problems
- Criminals are sick and must be treated/helped
- All we need are more programs: Refuse to acknowledge failure of social programs to reduce crime
What are four types of crime prevention?
o Legal Prevention: Traditional criminal justice system
• E.g., direct effects of deterrence, incapacitation and rehabilitation; plus indirect effects of socialization
o Developmental Prevention: Focuses on social well-being; risk and protective factors
• E.g., poverty, unemployment, education, health
o Community Prevention: Focuses on community well-being
• E.g., social organization; order maintenance (broken windows)
o Situational crime prevention: Focuses on environment
• E.g., building design, landscape, product
What are 3 different ways to think about crime prevention?
Public Health Model, Evidence-based criminology, What works report?
What is the public health model?
o Primary: Reducing risk in overall population
• E.g., general deterrence; developmental programs aimed at all children; general focus situational crime prevention
o Secondary: Reducing risk in high-risk individuals and high risk areas
• E.g., Early interventions for high-risk persons and neighborhoods
o Tertiary: Reducing additional offending among offenders
• E.g., specific deterrence, incapacitation, treatment
o Different levels of prevention
Explain evidence-based criminology?
o Current buzzword – basic idea is that the policies we want to use to enact crime prevention should be based on evidence
o Experimental criminology
• Has its own academy, its own division within the American Society of Criminology, and its own journal
What is the “What Works? Report?
o These are the major conclusions of a 1997 report to Congress, which was based on a systematic review of more than 500 scientific evaluations of crime prevention practices
What factors is the what works evaluation based on?
o A measure of evaluation quality based on 3 primary factors:
• Control of rival causal factors (e.g., randomization)
• did they have treatment and control groups which were randomized?
• Measurement error (e.g., sample loss, selection bias)
• Statistical power (Likelihood of detecting an effect if there is one. Affected by sample size and the base rate of outcome variable)
o Rating these evaluations based on these 3 factors
