NCJ Number
222316
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: March/April 2008 Pages: 90-101
Date Published
March 2008
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the impact of the “drug-free zone” adopted in Portland, OR in 1992.
Abstract
Research suggested that increased police presence had a significant impact on numbers of drug sales arrests in crime-ridden areas over an extended period of time. Socioeconomic status had a significant common negative impact on the number of drug sales arrests in block groups. As education, income, and home values increased, the number of drug sales arrests decreased. Family status/racial composition had a significant, positive impact on the number of drug sales arrests. As the percentage of the population of single with children or single without children, and the percentage of the population of African-Americans increased, the number of drug sales arrests also increased. Finally, as measured in the study, residential stability showed significant negative effect on numbers of drug sales arrests in block groups. A key predictor of crime rate was residential stability and arrests propensity of the block groups. However, block group family status was more important to the explanation of drug sales than residential stability or socioeconomic status. Significant contributions of the study included the following: spatial patterns were examined city-wide over a 9-year period of time, spatial patterns of crime were examined in block group levels, and the multilevel analysis of a law enforcement intervention accounted for competing explanatory measures, including police allocation, population, natural change over time, spatial autocorrelation, and community characteristics. Data were collected from multiple methods including mapping and multilevel analytic techniques. Tables, figure, notes, references