Nicholas Corsaro

Reducing Homicide through a “Lever‐Pulling” Strategy

The decade of the 1990s witnessed unexpected but welcome large declines in homicide and serious firearms violence. Yet, despite these declines, rates of firearms crime in the United States remain high compared to other western democracies and impose significant costs to society generally and to specific communities particularly. One promising approach to gun crime emerged in Boston during the mid‐1990s. This approach combined face‐to‐face communication of a deterrence message to youth gang members with social service outreach and crackdowns on several gangs. Boston then experienced very significant declines in youth gun crime. This approach was later repeated in Minneapolis with similar promising results. This paper presents the results of a study of a similar gun‐crime‐reduction effort in Indianapolis. Time‐series analyses suggest a significant decline in homicide similar to those observed in Boston and Minneapolis. Comparisons to six similar Midwestern cities revealed that Indianapolis was the only city to experience a significant decline in homicide. The results are discussed in the context of deterrence research and suggest the need to move beyond single‐city evaluations of promising interventions.

Reducing Gang Violence Using Focused Deterrence: Evaluating the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV)

Research indicates that focused deterrence interventions are associated with violence reductions, although levels of success vary across sites. It is unknown if these strategies can produce sustained reductions over time, and if the variation in success is due to differences in program activities and dosages. This study provides a detailed description and evaluation of the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV), a focused deterrence violence reduction strategy implemented in Cincinnati, Ohio. CIRV’s organizational structure and enhanced social services were designed to address sustainability issues that threaten to undermine long-term success. Results from our pooled time series regression models indicate that two violent outcomes—group/gang-member involved homicides and violent firearm incidents—declined significantly following implementation. These declines were observed in both 24- and 42-month post-intervention periods, but not in comparison outcomes. Additional analyses, however, reveal that provision of social services was not responsible for the significant and sustained decline.

Problem-Oriented Policing and Open-Air Drug Markets Examining the Rockford Pulling Levers Deterrence Strategy

Problem-oriented policing strategies have been regarded as promising approaches for disrupting open-air drug markets in vulnerable communities. Pulling levers deterrence interventions, which are consistent with the problem-oriented framework, have shown potential as an effective mechanism for reducing and preventing youth, gun, and gang violence. This study examines the effect of a strategic, pulling levers intervention that was implemented by law enforcement officials in Rockford, Illinois, to address drug markets in a high crime neighborhood. The initiative builds on a similar effort developed in High Point, North Carolina, and represents an extension of pulling levers that was originally developed in Boston. The impact evaluation uses a mixed method of quantitative hierarchical growth curve models and qualitative interviews with residents. Study findings suggest that the Rockford strategy was associated with a statistically significant and substantive reduction in crime, drug, and nuisance offenses in the target neighborhood. Results from this examination have implications for both research and public policy.

Evaluating a Policing Strategy Intended to Disrupt an Illicit Street-Level Drug Market.

The authors examined a strategic policing initiative that was implemented in a high crime Nashville, Tennessee neighborhood by utilizing a mixed-methodological evaluation approach in order to provide (a) a descriptive process assessment of program fidelity; (b) an interrupted time-series analysis relying upon generalized linear models; (c) in-depth resident interviews. Results revealed that the initiative corresponded with a statistically significant reduction in drug and narcotics incidents as well as perceived changes in neighborhood disorder within the target community. There was less-clear evidence, however, of a significant impact on other outcomes examined. The implications that an intensive crime prevention strategy corresponded with a reduction in specific forms of neighborhood crime illustrates the complex considerations that law enforcement officials face when deciding to implement this type of crime prevention initiative.

Journey to Crime and Victimization: An Application of Routine Activities Theory and Environmental Criminology to Homicide

Abstract Despite the attention the crime of homicide has received by the academic community there are still gaps in the literature. One of these gaps pertains to the examination of the mobility patterns of homicide victims and offenders. This study addresses this gap by focusing on three research questions—(1) Does the distance traveled by homicide suspects and victims from their residence to the incident location vary by homicide motive type? (2) Does the reason why homicide victims and suspects travel to the incident location vary by homicide motive type? (3) What victim and suspect characteristics significantly predict the distance traveled from the residence to the incident location? The analyses show that there are statistically significant differences among the homicide types in terms of the length of the journey of victims and suspects to the incident location. In addition, there is variation by motive in terms of why the victims and suspects traveled to the incident location. Finally, the findings suggest that the demographic and lifestyle characteristics of victims and suspects have an impact on their journey to crime and victimization.

Most challenging of contexts: assessing the impact of focused deterrence on serious violence in New Orleans

Research Summary The use of focused deterrence to reduce lethal violence driven by gangs and groups of chronic offenders has continued to expand since the initial Boston Ceasefire intervention in the 1990s, where prior evaluations have shown relatively consistent promise in terms of violence reduction. This study focuses on the capacity of focused deterrence to impact lethal violence in a chronic and high-trajectory homicide setting: New Orleans, Louisiana. Using a two-phase analytical design, our evaluation of the Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) observed the following findings: (a) GVRS team members in the City of New Orleans closely followed model implementation; (b) homicides in New Orleans experienced a statistically significant reduction above and beyond changes observed in comparable lethally violent cities; (c) the greatest changes in targeted outcomes were observed in gang homicides, young Black male homicides, and firearms violence; and (d) the decline in targeted violence corresponded with the implementation of the pulling levers notification meetings. Moreover, the observed reduction in crime outcomes was not empirically associated with a complementary violence-reduction strategy that was simultaneously implemented in a small geographic area within the city. Policy Implications The findings presented in this article demonstrate that focused deterrence holds considerable promise as a violence prevention approach in urban contexts with persistent histories of lethal violence, heightened disadvantage, and undermined police (and institutional) legitimacy. The development of a multiagency task force, combined with unwavering political support from the highest levels of government within the city, were likely linked to high programmatic fidelity. Organizationally, the development of a program manager and intelligence analyst, along with the use of detailed problem analyses and the integration of research, assisted the New Orleans working group in identifying the highest risk groups of violent offenders to target for the GVRS notification sessions. The impacts on targeted violence were robust and consistent with the timing of the intervention. KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice; Juvenile delinquency; Gangs Language: en

Are suppression and deterrence mechanisms enough? Examining the "pulling levers" drug market intervention strategy in Peoria, Illinois, USA.

BACKGROUND Police agencies across the globe enforce laws that prohibit drug transportation, distribution, and use with varying degrees of effectiveness. Within the United States, law enforcement strategies that rely on partnerships between criminal justice officials, neighbourhood residents, and social service providers (i.e., collaborative implementation) have shown considerable promise for reducing crime and disorder associated with open-air drug markets. The current study examines a comprehensive police enforcement strategy conducted in Peoria, Illinois (USA) designed to reduce patterns of crime and violence associated with an open-air drug market in a specific neighbourhood. METHODS Change in neighbourhood crime was assessed using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) interrupted time series analysis. Further, target area residents were surveyed to gauge their awareness of the police intervention as well as perceived changes in local crime patterns. RESULTS Analyses indicate that the intervention did not produce significant changes in neighbourhood crime offense rates between pre- and post-intervention periods. In addition, the majority of surveyed residents within the target area did not demonstrate an awareness of the intervention nor did they report perceived changes in local crime patterns. CONCLUSIONS Study findings suggest that police-led approaches in the absence of high levels of community awareness and involvement may have less capacity to generate crime-control when focusing on open-air drug markets. We propose that police agencies adopting this strategy invest considerable resources toward achieving community awareness and participation in order to increase the potential for attaining significant and substantive programmatic impact.

Self-Protection in Rural America: A Risk Interpretation Model of Household Protective Measures

Scholarly interest in self-protective behaviors is demonstrated in studies examining victimization; these behaviors are presumed to reduce the likelihood of experiencing crime. Protective behaviors are not taken by all citizens equally, however, so it is critical to explain these behaviors within the population. The current study extends existing works, most of which were based on urban samples, by examining the determinants of protective behaviors in a sample of rural residents in the United States. Predictors are derived from a modified risk interpretation model (Ferraro, 1995) and include risk, fear, victimization experiences, and perceived collective efficacy. Results show that household protective behaviors are influenced by perceptions of risk and, indirectly through risk, by perceived collective efficacy and victimization experiences.

The High Point Drug Market Intervention: Examining Impact across Target Areas and Offense Types

Abstract The High Point Police Department in North Carolina was the first law enforcement agency to implement a series of “pulling levers” interventions in specific neighborhoods in order to reduce crime problems associated with street-level drug markets. The High Point Drug Market Intervention (DMI) has since received considerable attention among practitioner and researcher audiences given the promise of the strategy seen in prior research. However, no study to date has examined the relative impacts across the different target neighborhood contexts as well as among crime outcomes within High Point. A series of interrupted time series models indicates the initial neighborhood (West End) experienced the greatest offense reductions between the preintervention and postintervention period. The second site (Daniel Brooks) showed more modest crime declines, and the latter two sites (Southside and East Central) did not demonstrate significant crime changes. Potential explanations and directions for future studies are discussed in this paper.

The Impact of Police on Criminal Justice Reform

Research Summary Despite significant national reductions in crime during the past three decades, a comparable reduction in adult arrest rates has not occurred. In addition, scant attention has been paid to the role of the police in pretrial justice and other criminal justice reform efforts, despite their role as gatekeepers to the criminal justice system. A key inquiry that must be addressed by both academics and practitioners is whether it is possible to reduce crime and the number of arrests simultaneously. Cincinnati (Hamilton County), Ohio, provided a unique opportunity to examine this unanswered question when it closed the Queensgate Correctional Facility in 2008, thereby reducing the available jail space in the county by 36%. By relying on an interrupted time-series analysis, our findings show that contrary to public concern, both crime and arrests were reduced in Cincinnati even after the jail closure. Specifically, the Cincinnati Police Department reported a statistically significant decrease in felony arrests, and a nonsignificant decline in misdemeanor arrests, while maintaining a continued (nonsignificant) decline in violence and property crimes. Importantly, our findings demonstrate that the previous existent downward trend in Cincinnati reported crimes was not interrupted with the loss of more than one third of the available jail space in Hamilton County. Policy Implications Policy makers and practitioners are concerned with balancing the individual rights of the accused with public safety; reducing incarceration; and promoting a more efficient, effective, and fair criminal justice system. The Cincinnati Police Department addressed these fundamental concerns by changing how officers viewed the use of arrest: as a limited commodity rather than as a standard response. By using strategies such as problem-oriented policing, place-based policing, and focused deterrence, Cincinnati Police were able to narrow their focus on the repeat places, problems, and groups of individuals that were driving crime within the city. The evidence suggests that the police can have a significant impact on pretrial justice and other criminal justice reform efforts through the implementation of evidence-based policing strategies that seek to reduce crime and reduce the use of arrest simultaneously.