Prison Population Can Shrink When Police Crowd Streets
A catchy title from the NYT (thanks to a Twitter alert). Which opens with:
Quote:
Now that the United States has the world’s highest reported rate of incarceration, many criminologists are contemplating another strategy. What if America reverted to the penal policies of the 1980s? What if the prison population shrank drastically? What if money now spent guarding cellblocks was instead used for policing the streets?
In short, what would happen if the rest of the country followed New York City’s example?
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/ny...pagewanted=all
Lots of links to explore.
Personally I wonder if crime and the better criminals have realised street crime is just too dangerous and not so profitable - fraud & forgery for example are generally safer for the criminal. Secondly, by jailing fewer NYC has reduced the educational impact of being in jail.
Criminal justice reform: a revolution on the American right
A different way of looking at criminal justice and more in the USA, a left-leaning UK think tank has published a short paper to impact policies in the UK. It has some amazing statistics and quotes. This one is a stunner, even if the question "Are you on parole or probation?" features in some of our TV diet of US cops shows here:
Quote:
The overcriminalisation of America has exacted a stunning toll: when you add those who are on probation or parole to the total number of prisoners, one of every 32 adults is under government control. That is a startlingly large swathe of our population to place in the hands of the government.
Link:http://www.ippr.org/images/media/fil...2013_10616.pdf
Cellphone Thefts Grow, but the Industry Looks the Other Way
A NYT article, with some surprising figures cited, having worked in an urban area plagued over ten years ago with street robberies for cellphones it tells a familiar story:
Quote:
In San Francisco last year, nearly half of all robberies involved a cellphone, up from 36 percent the year before; in Washington, cellphones were taken in 42 percent of robberies, a record. In New York, theft of iPhones and iPads last year accounted for 14 percent of all crimes.
Some compare the epidemic of phone theft to car theft, which was a rampant problem more than a decade ago until auto manufacturers improved antitheft technology.
Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/te...pagewanted=all
Our experience with the manufacturers action to improve security may not end the problem, rather shift it and sometimes with a higher level of violence to the victim - "home invasions" for the keys for performance cars for example.
Everything you know about crime is wrong
The actual title of this UK crime story is: 'How Jill Dando's death convinced me everything you know about crime is wrong': NICK ROSS tells the shocking truth about the murder of his friend and the real cause of crime' and the author Nick Ross is a well known, respected TV presenter:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...use-crime.html
Yes it is about the UK which is different from the USA, but contributes to the debate here.
Crime falls 15% in England and Wales
That is the BBC's headline, in what is becoming a controversial issue, although with little public engagement:
Quote:
Overall crime in England and Wales fell by 15% in 2013, official figures show.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales reported (calculated after 36k interviews) 7.5 million crimes against households and adults in that year, the lowest level since it began in 1981.
Separate police figures showed a 2% fall in crime for 2013, with increases in areas such as fraud (25%) as well as a 17% rise in reported sex offences following the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27138921
This is an excellent review article:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-violence.html
It ends with a former senior officer's comment:
Quote:
To me, in a professional sense, it is dispiriting. The fact that we don’t really know why crime is now going down tells me that in 30 years’ policing, my actions didn’t make quite as much difference as I had hoped. On the other hand, I’m pleased – my children are going to grow up in a society where there is less crime.
For those who wish to delve deeper on the stats this is good too. It ends with:
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Our data on different crime types is not what it's cracked up to be and most of the current explanations for observed crime trends are variously unevidenced and unconvincing.
Link:http://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/re...olence-decline
The End of Gangs: lessons from LA
An optimistic review article, which opens with:
Quote:
Los Angeles gave America the modern street gang. Groups like the Crips and MS-13 have spread from coast to coast, and even abroad. But on Southern California’s streets they have been vanishing. Has L.A. figured out how to stop the epidemic it set loose on the world?
Link:http://www.psmag.com/navigation/poli...c-crime-95498/
I do wonder if the gangs have also changed their ways, less overt activity, but overall good news.
Why We Need Broken Windows Policing
There is a long history to the theory of 'Broken Windows', let alone their implementation by policing, primarily in New York city by NYPD and the originator, George Keeling and NYPD's Commissioner, Bill Bratton have an article in City Journal - lots of stats are cited:http://www.city-journal.org/2015/25_...-policing.html
Taster passage:
Quote:
The NYPD’s critics object, in particular, to the department’s long-standing practice of maintaining order in public spaces. This practice, widely referred to as Broken Windows or quality-of-life or order-maintenance policing, asserts that, in communities contending with high levels of disruption, maintaining order not only improves the quality of life for residents; it also reduces opportunities for more serious crime.