NCJ Number
103411
Date Published
1985
Length
140 pages
Annotation
A joint research effort of New York City's Crime Commission and the Regional Plan Association identified the security needs in three commercial centers and searched locally and nationally for possible anticrime efforts to be implemented by a coalition of business, residents, and government.
Abstract
The project's goal was to make Jamaica Center in Queens, Fordham Road in the Bronx, and downtown Brooklyn safer and more commercially viable. The study's first phase involved telephone surveys of 610 residents of the trade areas, interviews with local business people, and an analysis of local crime data. The survey confirmed the seriousness of the crime problem and indicated that fear of crime was impeding economic development. Behavioral factors had more influence on fear than did physical signs of disorder. The study's second phase gathered data on programs operating in many other cities. Field visits to 9 cities and telephone interviews with business people and officials in 14 other cities gathered information. Recommended strategies include design and development techniques, police and private security programs, and downtown leadership and organization. Urban design and development should feature dense development, increased housing and mixed-use development, and downtown special events to increase pedestrian flow and reduce the fear of crime. Police should use permanently assigned beat officers. Business people, community organizations, and public agencies need to organize and cooperate. Footnotes, appendixes presenting details of strategies and addresses of interview subjects, and 44 references.