NCJ Number
219956
Date Published
July 2007
Length
32 pages
Annotation
To determine what is most effective in street-level drug enforcement interventions, this paper reviewed all available, scientifically rigorous academic studies evaluating a wide range of street-level drug law enforcement interventions.
Abstract
The review found that geographically focused interventions (including problem-oriented policing, third-party policing, and Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) initiatives) were better than community-wide approaches that used partnerships across a wide geographic area to reduce drug and disorder problems in neighborhoods plagued with drug problems. The review also found that either type of partnership approach (communitywide or geographically focused) was likely to be more effective at reducing drug problems than law enforcement--only efforts, such as crackdowns, raids and directed patrols that target drug hot spots. In summary, it was found that police efforts to forge crime-control partnerships and build better police-citizen relationships could be a more effective approach to tackling street-level drug problems than simply enforcement-only approaches to policing drug hot spots. This paper reviewed the results of 117 scientifically rigorous street-level drug law enforcement evaluation studies to determine what was most effective in street-level drug enforcement interventions. References