Criminology & Public Policy 13(2)

Criminology & Public Policy, May 2014: Volume 13, Issue 2

COMMUNITY INVESTMENT AND THE CONTROL OF STREET CRIME

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Reducing Crime Through Community Investment
Lauren J. Krivo

RESEARCH ARTICLE
New Parochialism, Sources of Community Investment, and the Control of Street Crime
David M. Ramey and Emily A. Shrider

Research Summary: We examined Seattle, Washington's Neighborhood Matching Fund (NMF), a unique neighborhood improvement program that provides city funding for projects organized within neighborhoods. We found an inverse relationship between NMF funding and violent crime rates, a relationship that is stronger in poorer neighborhoods. The relationship also is stronger as funds accumulate within the neighborhoods over time. These findings suggest that investment and neighborhood participation can have both short-term and long-term crime reduction effects.

Policy Implications: The Neighborhood Matching Fund program is associated with significant reductions in crime, even though the program and its projects are not aimed specifically at crime reduction. This observation suggests that policies that encourage neighbors to interact with each other and that facilitate interactions and physical improvements can help reduce crime by improving neighborhood conditions and social relationships. Investments in neighborhoods by the city also can help counteract the negative effects of private disinvestment.

POLICY ESSAYS

New Parochialism and Community Dynamics
Andrea Leverentz

Making or Breaking Neighborhoods
María B. Vélez and Christopher J. Lyons

DOWNWARD DEPARTURES IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY SENTENCING

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
Sentencing Policy Disputes
Melissa Hamilton

RESEARCH ARTICLE
“Fundamentally Flawed?”
Kimberly A. Kaiser and Cassia Spohn

Research Summary: Using U.S. Sentencing Commission data, this study assesses whether judicial downward departures are more prevalent among child pornography offenders compared with a matched sample of defendants convicted of other offenses. Additionally, we examine reasons given by judges when departing from the guidelines for these offenders. We found that child pornography defendants received significant reductions in sentences by way of judicial downward departures.

Policy Implications: In 2007, the Supreme Court considerably altered the federal sentencing process. In Kimbrough v. United States (2007), the Court held that judicial departures were permissible on grounds of a policy disagreement. Many circuit courts have authorized sentencing judges to depart from the guidelines in child pornography cases based on such a policy disagreement. The findings of this study suggest that judicial downward departures for these offenders cannot be explained by individual characteristics, such as race, gender, or age, and may be indicative of a specific disagreement with this particular sentencing policy. An examination of the reasons provided by judges supports the hypothesis that judges may be attempting to remedy what they perceive as unjustly harsh sentencing guidelines.

POLICY ESSAY
Mismatch of Guidelines and Offender Danger and Blameworthiness Departures as Policy Signals from the Courts
Jeffery T. Ulmer
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1745-9133.12083/abstract?campaign=woletoc

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT, POLICING, AND CRIME

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
The Strange Career of Immigration in American Criminological Research
Richard Rosenfeld

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Immigration Enforcement, Policing, and Crime
Elina Treyger, Aaron Chalfin and Charles Loeffler

Research Summary: In 2008, the federal government introduced “Secure Communities,” a program that requires local law enforcement agencies to share arrestee information with federal immigration officials. We employed the staggered activation of Secure Communities to examine whether this program has an effect on crime or the behavior of local police. Supporters of the program argue that it enhances public safety by facilitating the removal of criminal aliens. Critics worry that it will encourage discriminatory policing. We found little evidence for the most ambitious promises of the program or for its critics’ greatest fears.

Policy Implications: Although a large body of evidence reports that municipal police can have an appreciable effect on crime, involving local police in federal immigration enforcement does not seem to offer measurable public safety benefits. Noncitizens removed through Secure Communities either would have been incapacitated even in the absence of the program or do not pose an identifiable risk to community safety.

POLICY ESSAYS

Secure or Insecure Communities?
Charis E. Kubrin

The Reality of the Secure Communities Program
Ramiro Martinez Jr. and Janice Iwama