Risk-Focused Policing at Places: An Experimental Evaluation

• NCJ Number: 222536
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 163-200
• Author(s): David Weisburd; Nancy A. Morris; Justin Ready
• Date Published: March 2008
• Length: 38 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2000-JR-VX-004
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reports on an evaluation of the Redlands Police Department's (California) effort to prevent and reduce juvenile delinquency through the strategy called Risk-Focused Policing at Places (RFPP), which is a community-oriented policing and problem-solving strategy that targets risk and protective factors related to delinquency and problem behaviors of youths living in census block group areas.

Abstract

The evaluation concluded that the RFPP strategy did not have a significant effect on self-reported delinquency, perceptions of risk and protective factors, and police legitimacy. The evaluation concluded that the program failed to impact delinquent behavior because the census block group was too large a geographic unit of analysis for the achievement of the kind of targeted and focused interventions that produce positive crime-prevention outcomes. Another explanation for the strategy's lack of a measurable significant impact was that Redlands youth overall were not involved in a high level of deviant activities, and they held largely positive attitudes toward the police. This suggests that any margin of improvement in Redlands youths' deviant behavior would be small. The evaluation used a matched block experimental design. Randomization was implemented at the cluster or place level where interventions were implemented; outcomes were examined in terms of the self-reported delinquent behaviors of samples of juveniles living in the targeted places. Hierarchical linear models were used to assess the impact of the place-based treatment on individuals, while simultaneously taking into account the clustering of individuals within block groups. The variables measured pertained to delinquent, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, arrests, and risk and protective factors. Risk and protective variables were related to community, family, school, peer, and individual characteristics. 9 tables, 2 figures, 84 references and appendix