Citation

Ward CM. J. Crim. Justice 1997; 25(1): 1-18.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0047-2352(96)00047-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A case study of one inner-city neighborhood in St. Louis (Hyde Park) indicates that community members in partnership with city and other outside entities are implementing a comprehensive crime prevention approach, addressing both background (social malaise) and foreground (opportunity) causes of criminal behavior. The Friedens Haus (house of peace) coalition of school, church, private social service agency, and community furnishes educational, social, and health services while another organization, the Hyde Park Safety Committee with its mobile patrol component, implements deterrent measures regarding opportunity for criminal behavior. Comparisons are made among eight demographically similar St. Louis neighborhoods over a period of six years, linking demographic characteristics to rates of crime in the categories of robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary. This, along with trend analyses of crime frequencies in four of the neighborhoods, t-tests performed regarding mean rate differences of reported crime in Hyde Park, and a contiguous neighborhood during the same time period, strongly suggest that the Hyde Park Mobile Patrol component of a comprehensive crime prevention program had a curtailing effect on at least one type of crime–robbery.