Op/ed: Tackling Crime Requires Local, Data-Driven Solutions
Gun Violence Expert Says National ‘Tough-on-Crime’ Approaches Aren’t Enough
By Thomas Abt
Police officers tape off and inspect the scene of one of three shootings in the Vermillion Hills neighborhood of Levittown, Pa., earlier this year. Effective violence reduction requires deep local knowledge and research, not just sweeping anti-crime policy, a UMD researcher says.
Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
While fighting violent crime may be a national priority, actual solutions aren’t found at the national level—or even on a city-wide basis. In a new essay in Newsweek, Thomas Abt, director of the University of Maryland’s Violence Reduction Center and an associate research professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, writes that for instance, in most U.S. cities, half the homicides happen on 3% of their streets.
[UMD, White House Representative Address Gun Violence Reduction Efforts]
That means local leaders need data and deep understanding about specific places and people where crime-reduction efforts should be focused—a reality that demands research-backed, community-focused local strategies, he argues.
According to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, voters rank "crime and drugs" as one of the most important issues facing the country. It's no wonder, then, that candidates from both parties are fighting to appeal to Americans on crime. "Make America Safe Again" was the theme of Day 2 of the Republican National Convention, and Democrats have touted the recent drop in violent crime as a win for the Biden-Harris administration.
Unfortunately, these national conversations tend to omit a critical factor for crime reduction: local evidence- and community-informed solutions.
Public safety is greatly influenced by local policies, history, economy, culture and people. That means we need locally tailored solutions that work from the bottom up. Fortunately, several overarching principles, stemming from reliable research and data, can guide local actors in developing and employing solutions that will be most effective for their own communities.
Read the rest in Newsweek.
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