Community-Based Participatory Research and Crime

• In Event: Roundtable: Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Policy

Abstract

Community development literature highlights that, at its core, people are the assets and solutions to improving their communities, not problems to be fixed. Residents are the experts about their communities; leadership to move communities forward toward decreasing crime and improving safety already exists within neighborhoods. Marginalized neighborhoods consist of people who have traditionally been left out of planning, decision-making and leadership in the implementation of transformation in their own communities. Models of community development that rely on outside experts rather than resident assets and articulated needs are deficient, and a lack of effective communication between residents and local leadership is cited as a primary barrier that perpetuates social isolation and inhibits movement toward safety improvements and positive health outcomes. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a research framework that engages community residents as partners in the planning, research, and solutions to community issues. CBPR empowers communities, builds individual and collective capacity, and leads to the community-driven design of solutions to address crime and safety concerns. In this roundtable, the CBPR method will be discussed in the context of a place-based crime prevention and elimination case study. Further, strategies and techniques for engaging community residents and law enforcement partners will be shared.

Authors

• Mary Ellen Brown, Arizona State University

• Birgitta Baker, Pennsylvania State University