Impact of Community Crime Prevention Programs in Chicago: Can Neighborhood Organizations Make a Difference

• NCJ Number: 114040
• Author(s): D P Rosenbaum; D A Lewis; J A Grant
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 204 pages
• Grant Number(s): 820-1104
• Sponsoring Agency: Ford Foundation
• Corporate Author: Northwestern University
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Final Report: Volume One

Annotation

This evaluation of five neighborhood-based crime prevention programs in Chicago focused on whether local community organizations, with outside funding but without substantial assistance from the police, could implement programs that would significantly impact residents' crime-prevention behavior.

Abstract

The intervention involved organizing residents of selected neighborhoods through door-to-door canvassing, block meetings, neighborhood meetings, and related strategies, with emphasis on the block watch model. A quasi-experimental research design was used to evaluate the programs. Measurement was done before and after program implementation in the experimental neighborhoods, and identical measurement occurred simultaneously in control comparison neighborhoods. Extensive telephone surveys were conducted with residents in panel samples and independent samples. Although residents' crime-prevention awareness and participation increased in the experimental neighborhoods, there was no significant differential change over time between the experimental and control areas. In fact, the three neighborhoods with the strongest evidence of program implementation showed significant increases in a number of problem areas, such as fear of crime, perceptions of the crime problem, vicarious victimization, and concern about the neighborhood's future. Possible explanations for these findings are explored. 60 tables, 3 footnotes, 32 references, survey instrument. (Author abstract modified)