Reducing the 'Signs of Crime' - The Newark Experience Executive Summary

• NCJ Number: 102306
• Author(s): A M Pate; W G Skogan; M A Wycoff; L W Sherman
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 28 pages
• Grant Number(s): 83-IJ-CX-0003
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: Police Foundation
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A field test in Newark, N.J., during 1983 and 1984 aimed to show that reducing the deterioration and disorder that represented the social and physical signs of crime would reduce the fear of crime.

Abstract

Program components were a cleanup program aimed at physical deterioration and an intensified law enforcement effort. Random samples of residents were surveyed before and 10 months after the program's introduction. Although the program was implemented as planned, it had few statistically significant effects. None of the desired effects were achieved. However, residents of the area served by the program took significantly more steps to protect their homes from crime than did those in the comparison area. Two types of crime decreased in the program area as well. The lack of effects on fear of crime may have resulted from the brevity of the program period. Findings did not permit any conclusions about the validity of the theory underlying the Newark effort. Footnotes, tables, list of task force members, and 8 references. For the complete report, see NCJ 102307.