6 proven policies for reducing crime and violence without gun control Vox

IN MANY CITIES, A VERY SMALL SUBSET OF
PLACES, DOWN TO THE STREET AND BLOCK LEVEL,
DRIVE MOST OF THE CRIME
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"It can be as simple as making sure your police presence is increased there, or it
can be much more complicated," Kennedy said. "You can get partnerships of
police, residents, families, parents, shop owners, building managers, and school
officials." He added, "The more those interventions involve partnerships, the
more effective those interventions can be."
The research strongly backs up the practice: Not only does it 
reduce crime
, but
it does so 
without displacing it to other areas
and generally to 
positive
reactions
from locals. And as Kennedy said, the research 
suggests
that
bringing in community partners and focusing on the community's needs can
boost the crime-fighting effects further.
3) Focused deterrence policing
One of the hot new phrases in criminal justice today is "community policing."
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But quite honestly, nobody seems to have any idea what it means. Experts and
law enforcement officials will give all sorts of definitions and strategies for the
practice.
But Kennedy did explain a strategy — "focused deterrence policing" — that
sounds a lot like what I would expect real community policing to look like, and it
works.
Focused deterrence hones in on specific problems in a community, such as
drug dealing, generally violent behavior, gangs, or gun violence. It then focuses
on the individuals and groups who drive most of that activity, particularly those
with criminal records and those involved in gang activity.
"The national annual homicide rate now is between 4 and 5 per 100,000,"
Kennedy said. "If you're in one of these street networks, your homicide rate can
easily be 3,000 per 100,000." He added, "Add in the nonfatal woundings, which
can be multiples of the homicide rate, and suddenly you're in unimaginable risk."
"THE COMMUNITY ITSELF NEEDS TO CONVEY
EXTREMELY STRONG AND CLEAR STANDARDS
AGAINST THE VIOLENCE"
The strategy brings together law enforcement and community groups to clearly
signal the major legal and community consequences of violence, especially in
relation to an individual's previous criminal record.
And to provide alternatives
to violent or criminal lifestyles, the community should also offer social services
and other forms of help.
So if someone has a long history of drug or even violent crimes, police could let
him know about the legal consequences of violence — decades or life in prison
— and the community could voice, through personal interactions, how it would
directly damage his family, friends, church, school, and so on. And the groups
should also offer help through, for example, accessible job and education
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programs.
"The community itself needs to convey extremely strong and clear standards
against the violence," Kennedy said, describing it as a form of informal policing
that comes from within someone's community.
The idea is that a would-be shooter, now knowing the full consequences of his
actions, will be deterred from acting out in the future. And he'll have alternative
options if he wants to pursue a different kind of life.
The research shows this works. Focused deterrence is one of the changes in
policing strategy credited with what's known as the 
"Boston miracle,"
in which
the city saw violent crime drop by 
79 percent
in the 1990s. And 
other
research
has found that it can work in many other places.
This policing strategy can involve retraining cops, getting them more involved in
the community, hiring more officers to carry it out effectively, and boosting
spending on social services. That can be very expensive — as such services and
police departments already make up a sizable chunk of many municipal and
state budgets. But if local lawmakers and officials want to reduce crime, these
changes can go a long way.
4) Raise the age or grade for dropping out of school
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Another way to reduce crime and violence could be to keep kids in school
longer.
The 
research
is quite clear that kids who don't drop out and complete school
are less likely to commit crime.
But this can get into tricky questions over correlation versus causation: Does
keeping kids in school longer stop them from committing crime later on by
keeping them off the streets and giving them the education they need to find a
legal job? Or are the kids who decide to stay in school longer simply better
behaved, and therefore less likely to commit crimes?
A recent 
study
published in the 
American Economic Journal
took an ingenious
approach to cut through this question — by tapping into data for students in
North Carolina, their birthdays, when they enroll in kindergarten, their dropout
rates, and their crime rates. It found that keeping kids in school longer likely
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reduces crime.
The study looked at data based on when children begin their education and
whether the older children in a class — those who were enrolled into
kindergarten at an older age — were more likely to drop out and commit crime.
The idea: These kids are generally enrolled at a later age due to a technicality in
North Carolina rules about birthdays and cutoff dates, so there's no inherent
reason to think their 
behavior
should be different — unless their time in school
influences it.
THE STUDY STRONGLY SUGGESTS KEEPING KIDS IN
SCHOOL WILL REDUCE THEIR CRIME RATES
The study found that these older kids were more likely to drop out — and they
were more likely to commit a felony offense by age 19.
Phil Cook, one of the study's authors, told me his findings strongly suggest
keeping kids in school will reduce their crime rates.
So what could policymakers do with these findings? Well, many states,
including North Carolina, set the dropout age at 16. They could raise the
dropout age to 18 or older.
"If North Carolina raised its age to 18, there would be some seniors in particular
who'd cross that threshold and would be legally entitled to drop out," Cook said.
"But that prospect would look different than it does at age 16 — they would be
closer to the finish line, so presumably it would not be as enticing."
Another option: Lawmakers could adopt Denmark's model, which requires
students to complete a certain number of grades. (Presumably there would be
exceptions, such as for children with extreme disabilities.) This would be less
arbitrary than an age cutoff, but it could run into some politically tricky territory
if it forces adults 18 and older to stay in high school.
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Whatever method policymakers use, keeping kids in school longer appears to
reduce crime rates. And it doesn't involve guns at all.
5) Behavioral intervention programs
The University of Chicago Crime Lab has done 
a lot of great work
into many
different policy proposals to fight crime. One of those ideas,
Youth
Guidance
's
Becoming A Man
, is emblematic of how specific these policies can
get — it targets youth who are at risk of getting into violent encounters, perhaps
because of the neighborhood they live in or what school they go to.
The program then uses once-a-week interventions, based on cognitive
behavioral principles, to teach youth how to react in encounters that can turn
violent.
"It helps kids understand and slow down the scripts that they use to get by,"
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Harold Pollack, co-director of the Crime Lab, said. "They have exercises that the
kids do where they get to practice self-regulation, skills, and slowing down and
negotiating with other people — the kinds of things that young boys growing up