Criminology & Public Policy 9(4)

VIOLENT VICTIMIZATION AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Economic Conditions and Minority Violence : An introduction
Alfred Blumstein

Violent victimization among males and economic conditions : The vulnerability of race and ethnic minorities
Janet L. Lauritsen and Karen Heimer

In this article, we use data from the 1973 to 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to estimate previously unknown trends in serious nonfatal violent victimization for Latino, non-Latino Black, and non-Latino White males in the United States. Past research has shown that Blacks and Latinos have been more susceptible than Whites to financial hardship during economic downturns and that economic disadvantage is an important correlate of violence in cross-sectional analyses. If significant declines in the national economy contribute to increases in violence, then crime trends disaggregated by race and ethnicity should show greater changes among minorities during periods of economic downturn. Although rates of violence have declined for all groups, we find that trends for Latino and Black males are similar and closely follow changes in consumer sentiment. In contrast, trends for White males display fewer fluctuations coinciding with changes in economic conditions. Continued disaggregation shows that these patterns appear primarily in stranger violence and not in violence by known offenders. The patterns also suggest that the association between changing economic conditions and male victimization trends might have weakened in recent years.

The findings raise concerns about the potential impact of recent economic changes on the risk for serious victimization, particularly among Blacks and Latinos. In light of the possible recent weakening of the relationship between economic changes and crime, future research should assess whether criminal justice policies and other factors moderate the relationship between economic conditions and victimization and use group-specific measures of violence so that important variability across race and ethnicity is not masked. These analyses also should be expanded to consider the potential effects on violence of government policies designed to alleviate poverty and unemployment.

Property crime—yes; violence—no : Comment on Lauritsen and Heimer
Philip J. Cook

Questions about the relationship of economic conditions to violent victimization
Kenneth C. Land and Hui Zheng

Economic conditions and racial/ethnic variations in violence : Immigration, the Latino paradox, and future research
Ramiro Martinez Jr.

Inequality by design : The connection between race, crime, victimization, and social policy
Patricia Y. Warren

PUBLIC CRIMINOLOGIES

Editorial Introduction to “Public Criminologies”
Todd R. Clear

Public criminologies
Christopher Uggen and Michelle Inderbitzin

Public scholarship aspires to bring social science home to the individuals, communities, and institutions that are its focus of study. In particular, it seeks to narrow the yawning gap between public perceptions and the best available scientific evidence on issues of public concern. Yet nowhere is the gap between perceptions and evidence greater than in the study of crime. Here, we outline the prospects for a public criminology, conducting and disseminating research on crime, law, and deviance in dialogue with affected communities. We present historical data on the media discussion of criminology and sociology, and we outline the distinctive features of criminology—interdisciplinary, a subject matter that incites moral panics, and a practitioner base actively engaged in knowledge production—that push the boundaries of public scholarship.

Discussions of public sociology have drawn a bright line separating policy work from professional, critical, and public scholarship. As the research and policy essays published in Criminology & Public Policy make clear, however, the best criminology often is conducted at the intersection of these domains. A vibrant public criminology will help to bring new voices to policy discussions while addressing common myths and misconceptions about crime.

Comment on “Public Criminologies”
Paul Rock

Who will be the public criminologists? How will they be supported?
Kenneth C. Land

What is to be done with public criminology?
Ian Loader and Richard Sparks

“Public criminology” and evidence-based policy
Michael Tonry

The role of research and researchers in crime and justice policy
Daniel P. Mears

REDUCING HOMELESS – RELATED CRIME

The Police, Disorder, and the Homeless
Anthony A. Braga

Policing the homeless : An evaluation of efforts to reduce homeless-related crime
Richard Berk and John MacDonald

Police officials across the United States are increasingly relying on place-based approaches for crime prevention. In this article, we examine the Safer Cities Initiative, a widely publicized place-based policing intervention implemented in Los Angeles's “Skid Row” that focused on crime and disorder associated with homeless encampments. Crime reduction was the goal. The police division in which the program was undertaken provides 8 years of time-series data serving as the observations for the treatment condition. Four adjacent police divisions in which the program was not undertaken provide 8 years of time-series data serving as the observations for the comparison condition. The data are analyzed using a generalized additive model. On balance, we find that this place-based intervention is associated with meaningful reductions in violent, property, and nuisance street crimes. There is no evidence of crime displacement.

This study provides further evidence that geographically targeted police interventions can lead to significant crime prevention benefits, with no evidence that crime is simply displaced to other areas. Criminologists and the media have given the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) little credit for major reductions in crime that have occurred during the past 5 years following a number of major policy reforms. We suggest that researchers should look more closely at the targeted interventions the LAPD has undertaken for evidence-based examples of effective policing. Importantly, this work suggests that crime associated with homeless encampments can be meaningfully reduced with targeted police actions. However, law enforcement actions do not address the roots of homelessness nor most of its consequences. Getting tough on the homeless should not be confused with policies or programs that respond fundamentally to the social and personal problems that homelessness presents.

Policy essay on “Policing the homeless...”
Alex R. Piquero

Tackling homelessness in Los Angeles' Skid Row : The role of policing strategies and the spatial deconcentration of homelessness
Dennis P. Culhane

Policy is in the details: Using external validity to help policy makers
John E. Eck

The Safer Cities Initiative and the removal of the homeless : Reducing crime or promoting gentrification on Los Angeles' Skid Row?
Alex S. Vitale

Policy essay on “Policing the Homeless : An Evaluation of Efforts to Reduce Homeless-Related Crime”
Michael Rowe and Maria O'Connell

Jim Longstreet, Mike Marshall, and the lost art of policing skid row
Michael D. White


Criminology & Public Policy, November 2010: Volume 9, Issue 4