Why Is Crime Decreasing?

• NCJ Number: 174440
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 300 pages
• Grant Number(s): 98-IJ-CX-0046
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored

Annotation

Articles in this volume discuss America's falling crime rate, offer explanations for the decrease, and suggest implications for criminal justice operation.

Abstract

The early 1990s saw a decrease in the rate of violent crime in the United States, a phenomenon which generated much debate as to the causes and how they can be translated into social policy which will effectively combat crime further. A conference held in March 1998 to review the falling crime rate and its ramifications resulted in 11 articles: (1) Alcohol and Homicide in the United States 1934-1995--or One Reason Why US Rates of Violence May Be Going Down; (2) Explaining Recent Trends in US Homicide Rates; (3) Declining Crime Rates: Insiders' Views of the New York City Story; (4) Declining Homicide in New York City: A Tale of Two Trends; (5) The Improbable Transformation of Inner-City Neighborhoods: Crime, Violence, Drugs, and Youth in the 1990s; (6) Asymmetrical Causation and Criminal Desistance; (7) Social Institutions and the Crime "Bust" of the 1990s; (8) Understanding the Time Path of Crime; (9) Volunteerism and the Decline of Violent Crime; (10) Effective Law-Enforcement Techniques for Reducing Crime; and (11) Which Homicides Decreased? Why? Notes, figures, tables