NCJ Number
171593
Journal
Crime and Justice International Volume: 13 Issue: 9 Dated: October 1997 Pages: 21-22
Date Published
October 1997
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article reports on a federally funded evaluation of State and local crime prevention programs that have received Federal grants.
Abstract
The report suggests that "the effectiveness of Department of Justice Funding depends on" it being directed at urban neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, since these are the areas with a generally high crime rate and a high rate of juvenile violence. Then Federal money should be invested in "rigorous testing" of programs that do work, so that the key elements within these programs can be combined and used to develop effective crime prevention programs. The report also suggests an independent review panel. The report examined seven institutions involved in the crime prevention programs funded: communities, families, schools, labor markets, places (specific areas), police, and the criminal justice system. A chart presented in this article shows the report's findings regarding what works, what is promising, and what does not work in the context of these institutions. Although weak evaluations did not permit the identification of any community crime prevention programs that work, some promising approaches are gang violence prevention, community-based mentoring, and after-school recreation. Family-based crime prevention programs that work include early infancy and preschool home visitation and parent training or family therapy for high-risk adolescents and children. School-based programs that work include clarifying and communicating norms about behavior and programs aimed at developing school capacity to initiate and sustain innovation. Among the police crime-prevention efforts that are effective are increased directed patrols in street-corner "hot spots" of crime and proactive arrests of serious repeat offenders. In the criminal justice system, prevention programs that work include rehab programs with particular characteristics and prison-based therapeutic community treatment for drug-involved offenders.