Discouraging window breakers: the lagged effects of police activity on crime

Citation

(2013), "Discouraging window breakers: the lagged effects of police activity on crime", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 36 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2013.18136caa.005

Discouraging window breakers: the lagged effects of police activity on crime

Discouraging window breakers: the lagged effects of police activity on crime

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 36, Issue 3.

Jonathan W. Caudill, Ryan Getty, Rick Smith, Ryan Patten and Chad R. TrulsonJournal of Criminal Justice2013Vol. 41pp. 18-23

This study is an analysis of the empirical relationship between Broken Windows enforcement and crime. Like studies before it, this study examines Broken Windows theory as a crime reduction strategy, but departs from existing research by using a unique operationalization of the Broken Windows perspective, and examining the effects of pro-active policing strategies on monthly reported violent and property crime (as opposed to annually reported crime). The later contribution allows the authors to explore lagged effects of traffic citations and non-traffic citations on sector-level violent and property crime. The authors hypothesized that increased order-maintenance policing would lead to lower reported crime. To test this hypothesis, data were collected from the Dallas Police Department, which divides the city into seven divisions with five sectors each. Data included information on the number of officers per sector per shift, arrests, and officer activity. This information was collapsed into monthly reporting by sector resulting in a sample of 870 observations. The policing activities, traffic citations and non-traffic citations, served as the independent variables of interest. Officer presence, two measures of more serious officer activity (weapons confiscations and arrests), and number of service calls answered served as controls. Both violent crime (murder, business robberies, individual robberies, and aggravated assaults) and property crime (business burglary, residential burglary, burglary of a motor vehicle, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle) indices served as dependent variables. Due to the use of count data, the study conducts analyses using negative binomial regression.

The results presented the influence of the predictor variables on one-month lagged, two-month lagged, and three-month lagged violent and property crime. Findings, in regards to violent crime, indicated that police citations do not have a significant effect on serious violent crime for any of the three models predicting violent crime. In comparison, several significant relationships emerged in regards to property crime. Traffic citations were associated with one-, two-, and three-month lagged property crime, although not in the theoretical hypothesized direction. Non-traffic citations were significantly associated with one-, two-, and three-month lagged property crime in the theoretically expected direction: non-traffic citations significantly reduced property crimes one, two, and three months out.

In sum, the results of this study are fairly consistent with prior research that has also found mixed support for Broken Windows theory, and in particular, divergent findings for violent crime and property crime. The authors conclude that the findings support police strategy based on Broken Windows as a method of reducing property crime. In regards to policy implications, it is suggested that identifying the length of deterrent effects (in this study at least three months for property crime) could assist agencies in creating a cost-effective application and timing of proactive enforcement practices across sectors. The authors conclude by encouraging collaboration between researchers and police departments on policy-relevant research.

Lane Kirkland GillespieBoise State University