Down These Mean Streets: Public Policy Analysis of a Community in Decay

• In Event: Neighborhood Structure, Institutions, and the Persistence of Disorder

Abstract

Various communities throughout the United States are facing the dilemma of criminogenic invasion through the presence of prostitution, drugs, and other illicit enterprises. The legacy of broken windows and community policing efforts have yielded mixed results as implemented in an effort to ameliorate these notable criminal disturbances. The displacement of criminal behavior from one urban area to another community has highlighted the pragmatic nature of urban crime and the impact of programmatic policy initiatives. Further, recent Federal efforts containing a conspicuous target hardening approach toward these community crime concerns raise concern about whether public policy can provide the effective solutions to assure long-term community safety. This paper considers a brief analysis of the past and present efforts in the directed fight against neighborhood criminal incidence utilizing an ethnographic study of a nationally spotlighted urban community. Our analysis offers a view contrasting community and regional reactions to the concentration of criminal incidence in a particular area and view from the ground. Media coverage, observations, and photographs of a specific urban community under siege will offer consideration of the development, criminal justice policy response, and prospects for assuring reduced crime incidence.

Authors

• Lloyd Klein, LaGuardia Community College

• Cory Rowe, LaGuardia Community College