Proactive Policing Impacts on Crime and Disorder

• In Event: Presidential Panel: Proactive Policing: Effects on Crime and Communities (A Report of the National Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

Proactive policing grew out of concerns that the police were not achieving crime prevention goals through standard approaches. A variety of proactive policing strategies developed during the late twentieth century including hot spots policing, problem-oriented policing, community policing, broken windows policing, stop-question-and-frisk, focused deterrence, procedural justice, and other approaches. This presentation presents the results of the NAS committee review on the impacts of proactive policing on crime and disorder. We first reviewed the theoretical mechanisms through which these strategies were suggested to impact crime and disorder. We then critically assessed strength and findings of the existing scientific evidence on the effectiveness of proactive policing strategies in reducing crime and disorder. A series of conclusions and recommendations for future research are presented and discussed.

Author

• Anthony Braga, Northeastern University