Endogenous Effects of Various Police Activities on Violent Crime

• In Event: Police Organizations (Organized by Division of Policing)

Abstract

Police officers can reduce crime by preventing it from occurring in the first place and by responding to crimes that have been reported by citizens. Although arguments for both types of policing strategies have been put forth in the literature, most empirical studies focus on one type of police activity (e.g., directed patrol) without considering the variety of other police activities that may be occurring simultaneously. Moreover, few studies explicitly model the influence of crime on police activity, a likely relationship given that the police seek to address existing crime problems. This study investigates the effect of prevention and response police strategies on violence to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between police activity and crime. Dynamic panel models using street segment-level observational data from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department examine the extent to which the amount of various police activities influence violent crime, and how crime influences policing activity. Results highlight the interdependence of police activity and violent crime and suggest ways that police departments can effectively structure crime reduction initiatives to incorporate both prevention and response.

Authors

• Paige Vaughn, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Theodore Lentz, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Richard Rosenfeld, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Beth M. Huebner, University of Missouri - St. Louis