Community and crime
This is one of the best social research projects I've ever read. Dr. Felton Earls spent the last 10 years working on "one of the largest, longest and most expensive studies in the history of criminology". The project cost is about $51 million so far with The MacArthur Foundation and The National Institute of Justice as its main backers.
The study focuses on understanding criminal behavior and its causes. One of its critical findings is that neighborhood crime rate will often depend on the involvement of the community in their neighbourhood. The basic premise revolves around "collective efficacy". A cleaning crew can clean up a neighborhood, but it will quickly return to its previous state. If on the other hand the community gets together to clean up its own neighborhood the effects are much more persistant. The idea of a "collective" develops and people in that community are less likely to contribute to its destruction.
Unfortunately this is an older article (January 6th, 2004) and so you'll need to pay in order to read it directly from NYT. A quick Google search found the archive posted on a separate site - enjoy!
On Crime as Science (a Neighbor at a Time)
The study focuses on understanding criminal behavior and its causes. One of its critical findings is that neighborhood crime rate will often depend on the involvement of the community in their neighbourhood. The basic premise revolves around "collective efficacy". A cleaning crew can clean up a neighborhood, but it will quickly return to its previous state. If on the other hand the community gets together to clean up its own neighborhood the effects are much more persistant. The idea of a "collective" develops and people in that community are less likely to contribute to its destruction.
Unfortunately this is an older article (January 6th, 2004) and so you'll need to pay in order to read it directly from NYT. A quick Google search found the archive posted on a separate site - enjoy!
On Crime as Science (a Neighbor at a Time)
posted by z @ 10:46 PM
5 Comments:
At 8:56 AM,
Rama said…
$51 million?? Yeah, from what you wrote, it still seems like common sense that if a neighborhood makes the effort to clean itself, of course it will make the effort to maintain it. So, why this waste of money to state the obvious?
At 10:16 AM,
Sarah said…
haha DUH!!! I love how they do these studies...they should really just ask some people.
At 12:33 PM,
z said…
In this case though I think the study makes sense. It gives a clear indicator that one of the best ways for cities to stem crime is to invest in strengthening the community itself.
This is not necessarily as obvious as it seems. As urbanization and technology have taken hold communities have all but disappeared. As a society we pay people to deal with certain things - cops to deal with crime, firefighters with fire, parks and rec with our surroundings, etc. There is no "community" as there is no need for one.
What this research does is indicate that investing money into community spaces and getting the community involved is a sound investment. Now that there is actual research it will be easier for cities to justify spending money on "creative" programs such as community building.
At 2:59 PM,
Rama said…
I suppose I'd feel better about the price tag if the information gleaned from the study actually got put to use... time will tell.
At 11:30 AM,
Sarah said…
I guess I have an issue with it because I've lived in those neighborhoods before and after they tried to "clean it up". I mean, on one hand, I'm glad it's final, but on the other that's a lot of money.
Post a Comment
<< Home