NCJ Number
87604
Date Published
1980
Length
277 pages
Annotation
The Urban Initiatives Anti-Crime Program cotargeted $41 million in resources from 13 Federal agencies and private, local contributions, directing them at 39 of the neediest public housing sites to mitigate residents' fear of crime through crime prevention measures.
Abstract
The report documents the presence of crime and fear in subsidized housing, outlines the program's accomplishments, and discusses how urban revitalization and crime prevention need to be linked in the future. The program was successful in linking Federal/local, and public/private resources as well as accomplishing interagency cooperation between Federal legislative and executive branches. Furthermore, it linked recently reduced criminal justice system funding with the greater reserve of human, urban economic, community and neighborhood development funding. The program introduced a management-by-objectives system at each of the sites, where it was used to implement improved management of public safety, rehabilitated anti-crime facilities and better physical security design, increased involvement of tenants in fighting crime, employed more youths, improved anticrime services for elderly residents and others, added additional and more sensitive police and law enforcement; and promoted area-wide public/private partnerships targeted on public housing sites as well as surrounding neighborhoods. The program represents a financially modest but programmatically sound approach to mitigating the problem of crime in subsidized housing. Tabular data are given; appendixes provide program documentation.