NCJ Number
190190
Date Published
2001
Length
335 pages
Annotation
This book attempts to determine why New York City's crime rate, particularly the murder rate, dropped so dramatically during the 1990's.
Abstract
In 1990, the New York City murder rate was 2,200 per year. By the end of the decade, the count had dropped by more than two-thirds. The number of robberies, car thefts, and other street crimes reported to the police also plummeted. Using data about patterns, trends, and statistical associations, the book attempts to determine the reasons for the sharp decline and whether there were important underlying developments in New York City and across the country that have been overlooked in previous explanations. The book concludes that no single factor--such as innovative policing strategies--deserves the greatest share of credit for the rapid improvement in public safety. The turnaround in the incidence of crime resulted from what the book describes as a "fortuitous confluence" of underlying factors: (1) improvement in the local economy, with the accompanying decline in unemployment and poverty; (2) subsidence in use of drugs and liquor; (3) contraction in the ranks of young people in their most crime-prone years; and (4) growth in size and sophistication of the police force. The book also notes other factors that are difficult to evaluate and measure, and require more thorough investigation, e.g., the role of private security forces, surveillance cameras, and anti-theft hardware, the out-migration of active criminals displaced by intensified police pressures, the underground economy as a source of off-the-books, uncounted employment and income, and community organizations combating the street culture values that youths acquire during adolescence. Abbreviations, figures, tables, notes, appendix, references, indexes