Banishment in Public Housing: Deterrence and Displacement

• In Event: Back to the Basics: Specific and General Deterrence

Abstract

Within public housing, residents and non-residents have been exposed to banishment policies allowing police to ban non-residents from public housing properties and arrest them for trespassing if they return. Authorities justify the use of banishment with claims that these strategies reduce crime by deterring individuals involved in violent or drug-related crimes. Regardless of any crime control benefits within public housing, it is unclear whether the policy results in displacement. Theoretically, the threat of criminal punishment that stems from being banned may be enough to send banned individuals elsewhere to commit crime. Our study is the first to consider if being banned predicts increases in violent, property, and drug offenses outside of public housing at the individual level. We analyze pre- and post-ban offenses outside of public housing of a random sample of 346 individuals who have been banned from public housing in one Southeastern city between 2004 and 2012. Analysis relies on a pooled cross-sectional time-series design with random intercepts to accommodate within-individual dependence. Preliminary results suggest that being banned does not positively impact banned individuals’ offending outside of public housing. We conclude by considering the implications of our results and other considerations for evaluating banishment in public housing.

Authors

• Jose Torres, Virginia Tech

• Jacob Apkarian, Virginia Tech