Safe Homes, Safe Neighborhoods: Collaborative Strategies for - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Safe Homes, Safe Neighborhoods: Collaborative Strategies for Reducing Crime at Dangerous Places

• Dr. David Kirk, UT Department of Sociology

and Population Research Center UT Opportunity Forum February 14, 2014

Outline

• Crime in Austin
• Explain why crime concentrates
• Solutions for dangerous places

100 200 300 400 500 600 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Violent Crime Rate (per 100,000 residents), City of Austin

Source: APD Annual Crime and Traffic Reports; Chief's Monthly Report (December 2013)

1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Property Crime Rate (per 100,000 residents), City of Austin

Source: APD Annual Crime and Traffic Reports; Chief's Monthly Report (December 2013)

Concentration of 911 Calls in 2011, North Austin

Number of Calls Observed No. of Places Cumulative % of All Places Cumulative % of Calls 14227 100.0% 1 16116 60.5% 100.0% 2 1776 15.8% 83.5% 3 937 10.9% 79.9% 4 560 8.3% 77.0% 5 367 6.8% 74.7% 6 281 5.7% 72.9% 7 232 5.0% 71.1% 8 152 4.3% 69.5% 9 122 3.9% 68.2% 10 113 3.6% 67.1% 11 92 3.2% 66.0% 12 75 3.0% 64.9% 13 71 2.8% 64.0% 14 41 2.6% 63.1% 15 42 2.5% 62.5% 16 46 2.3% 61.8% 17 47 2.2% 61.1% 18 34 2.1% 60.3% 19 41 2.0% 59.6% 20+ 678 1.9% 58.8% Note: includes all CFS in Edward Sector in 2011. The exception is that 1,746 calls without a final call disposition were omitted. Places include addresses and intersections.

Concentration of Crime in North Austin

• Between 2007 and 2012, 135,000 index crimes were

reported in North Central Austin (APD’s Edward Sector).

• There are 1,193 census blocks in Edward Sector.
• Just 1% of the blocks accounted for 25% of the crime.
• Just 5% of the blocks accounted for 57% of the crime.

2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Index Crimes, APD's Edward Sector

Other 99% Census Blocks Top 1% Census Blocks

13% decline relative to 2007 3% increase

Summary

• Crime has declined in Austin.
• But…not every place has benefitted.
• Crime is highly concentrated in Austin, and the

volume of crime has been relatively stable at many hot spots of crime despite declining trends

• verall.

Solutions

Why arrest is often not enough

• Crime is the result of the convergence of 1)

motivated offenders and 2) suitable targets in the 3) absence of guardians.

• Without eliminating the opportunity for crime, another

motivated offender may simply replace the arrested

• ffender. Hence, the crime problem does not go

away.

• Person-centered vs. place-centered solutions to

crime.

Civil and Criminal Solutions to Problem Properties

• Nuisance strategies target the place of criminal activity and

work with owners and managers to alter the underlying conditions that are attractive to drug dealers and other nuisance criminals.

• Nuisance abatement is a process whereby a government

agency or other entity compels the owner of a property that is the source of a nuisance—through the threat of lawsuit—to bring about an end to the nuisance.

• The most effective nuisance strategies involve collaborative

teams of police, fire, code inspectors, and legal.