Banishment: Deterring Drugs and Violent Crime in Public Housing

• In Event: Crime and Victimization in Urban Areas

Abstract

Public housing neighborhoods have traditionally been stigmatized as areas ripe for violence. Within these neighborhoods public housing authorities have adopted “no-trespass” policies focused at reducing violence and the flow of narcotics. These policies give police the authority to ban non-residents from public housing neighborhoods and arrest them for trespassing upon violating the ban. Critics of these polies argue that they unjustly expand police powers because authorities need little reason to ban non-residents and these bans are beyond judicial review. However, what deterrent effects do no-trespass policies have on public housing communities? This study presents combined ban list and court record data from a Southeastern city in the U.S. Data is analyzed to measure if banishment has significantly reduced the likelihood that a banned individual will trespass or commit drug, property, or violent crime. Based on the deterrence literature it is predicted that banishment in public housing will not have a significant deterrent effect on reducing drug and violent crime.

Author

• Jose Torres, Virginia Tech