NCJ Number
143126
Date Published
1969
Length
85 pages
Annotation
Based on reports by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a survey of 17 major cities, this report concludes that the causes of violence (homicide, assault, rape, and robbery) are sociological rather than political or radical and that the country urgently needs a national urban policy of the kind recently suggested by Daniel P. Moynihan.
Abstract
The analysis concludes that violent crimes are mainly an urban problem and that violent crimes are committed mainly by the young, poor, male inhabitants of ghetto slums. The poverty, substandard housing, high unemployment, poor education, overpopulation, and family problems combine to produce powerful criminogenic forces in urban neighborhoods. These forces are intensified by racial discrimination and will produce rising levels of violent crime unless they are checked. Although an improved criminal justice system is required to contain the growth of violent crime, only progress toward urban reconstruction can reduce the strength of the crime-causing forces in the inner city and thus reverse the direction of current crime trends. Daniel P. Moynihan has recommended a 10-point national urban policy that deserves careful consideration. Footnotes and list of commission members and staff