NCJ Number
55530
Date Published
1978
Length
12 pages
Annotation
A REVIEW IS PROVIDED OF SELECTED CRIME PREVENTION AND CONTROL EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED IN NEW YORK CITY, KANSAS CITY, AND ELSEWHERE TO DETERMINE WHETHER INCREASES IN THE NUMBER OF PATROL OFFICERS POSITIVELY AFFECTS CRIME.
Abstract
ALL THE EXPERIMENTS INVOLVED SUBSTANTIAL SPOT INCREASES IN PATROL MANPOWER, MEASURES DESIGNED TO EVALUATE AN OFTEN EVOKED HYPOTHESIS: LESS POLICE MORE CRIME, MORE POLICE LESS CRIME. ALTHOUGH THE MAJORITY OF THE FINDINGS DEALT ONLY WITH REPORTED CRIME, SOMETHING LESS THAN A COMPREHENSIVE CONCLUSION CAN BE DRAWN FROM THE RESULTS. FIRST, A MASSIVE INCREASE IN POLICE PRESENCE ON FOOT PATROL IN DENSELY SETTLED AREAS WILL PROBABLY LEAD TO A REDUCTION IN THOSE CRIMES, SUCH AS MUGGINGS AND AUTO THEFT, THAT REQUIRE THE PERPETRATORS TO USE THE CITY STREETS. SECOND, SUBSTANTIAL INCREASES IN RANDOM PREVENTION PATROL BY POLICE IN MARKED CARS DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE ANY AFFECT ON THE CRIME RATES, NOR DO THEY TEND TO REASSURE THE CITIZENRY ABOUT THEIR SAFETY. THIRD, THE COMMUNITY SERVICE MODEL OF NEIGHBORHOOD TEAM POLICING APPEARS, ON THE BASIS OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM CINCINNATI, OHIO, TO BE OF SOME VALUE IN REDUCING BURGLARIES EVEN WITHOUT MASSIVE INCREASES IN POLICE MANPOWER. FOURTH, A CRIME-ATTACK STRATEGY AIMED AT SPECIFIC OFFENSES MAY HOLD GREAT PROMISE, BUT SO FAR IT HAS BEEN THE LEAST WELL-EVALUATED OF ALL POLICE METHODS; MORE CAREFUL WORK IS NEEDED IN THIS AREA THAN IN ALMOST ANY OTHER ASPECT OF POLICE BEHAVIOR. FINALLY, WHATEVER MAY BE THE VALUE OF THE POLICE PRESENCE AS A DETERRENT TO CRIME, THE VALUE OF AN ARREST FOR INCAPACITATING A CRIMINAL OR FOR DETERRING WOULD-BE CRIMINALS DEPENDS ON WHAT THE COURTS ELECT TO DO, AND THERE HAS BEEN VIRTUALLY NO CAREFUL EXPERIMENTATION IN THIS AREA OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. NO REFERENCES ARE CITED. (KBL)