February 6, 2013

New Study Finds NYC’s Crime Drop a Mystery. Is It?

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Violent crime in New York City has dropped 75 percent since the early 90s. The most common explanations include the introduction of “broken windows” policing in 1994, which focuses on stopping small crimes before they spiral into big ones; hot spot policing implemented via the CompStat system; more cops on the street; and higher incarceration rates. David Greenberg of NYU took a look at all of these explanations and found them wanting:

The study, which appears in the journal Justice Quarterly, did not find a link between arrests on misdemeanor charges and drops in felonies, such as homicides, robberies, and assaults….The analysis also showed no relationship between the number of police officers per capita at the precinct level and the reduction of violent crime, nor did it find a link between admissions to prison and violent crime rates….The analysis showed that violent crime rates (homicide, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery) and property crime rates did not significantly decrease after the implementation of CompStat—in fact, both continued on a consistent downward slope beginning in the early 1990s.

These are all topics that have been the subject of considerable debate for years, and since I don’t have access to the full paper, I can’t assess how good Greenberg’s methodology is. Nonetheless, I suspect that he’s more right than wrong. Even if all these things had some effect, the evidence mostly suggests the effect is nowhere big enough to account for the huge drop in crime that New York has seen. Still:

“The decline in crime was a real one during this period, but the question is ‘Why?’ ” said Greenberg, adding that many other major cities, including San Diego and Los Angeles, experienced similar reductions during this period.

Yep. And Canadian cities too. Plus cities in Britain, Germany, Australia, and Finland. Broken windows policing certainly can’t explain that. But I assume that all loyal readers of this blog know what can. Right?

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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