The Long Term Effect of Civil Gang Injunctions on Crime in Los Angeles

• In Event: Measuring the Crime-Effects of Place-Based Interventions

Abstract

Los Angeles has increasingly relied on civil injunctions that limit gang members activities within specific geographic areas to reduce crime. Previous work examining the first 9 injunctions imposed in the 1990s found they reduced violent crime by 5-10 percent within the first year they were imposed. Since then Los Angeles has imposed 46 additional injunctions. In this paper we extend the earlier evaluation of gang injunctions and assess their impact on crime over two decades of crime data from Los Angeles neighborhoods. We also capitalize on the disruption in the enforcement of civil gang injunctions in a few locations that occurred as a result of the Rampart scandal. This interruption in enforcement provides a natural experiment to assess the impact of the enforcement of civil gang injunctions on crime in neighborhoods.

Authors

• Greg Ridgeway, University of Pennsylvania

• Ruth Ann Moyer, University of Pennsylvania

• Jeff Grogger, University of Chicago

• John MacDonald, University of Pennsylvania