Title:

Attention Felons: Evaluating Project Safe Neighborhoods in Chicago

Author(s):

Papachristos, Andrew
Meares, Tracey
Fagan, Jeffrey A.

Date:

2006

Type:

Working papers

Department:

Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy

Permanent URL:

http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:9670

Series:

ISERP Working Papers

Part Number:

06-06

Publisher:

Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University

Publisher Location:

New York

Abstract:

This research uses a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN) initiatives on neighborhood level crime rates in Chicago. Four interventions are analyzed: (1) increased federal prosecutions for convicted felons carrying or using guns, (2) the length of sentences associated with federal prosecutions, (3) supply-side firearm policing activities, and (4) social marketing of deterrence and social norms messages through justice-style offender notification meetings. Using an individual growth curve models and propensity scores to adjust for non-random group assignment, our findings suggest that several PSN interventions are associated with greater declines of homicide in the treatment neighborhoods as compared to the control neighborhoods. The largest effect is associated with the offender notification meetings that stress individual deterrence, normative change in offender behavior, and increasing views on legitimacy and procedural justice. Possible competing hypotheses and directions for individual-level analysis are also discussed.

Subject(s):

Social research

Item views:

291

Metadata:

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