NCJ Number
221744
Date Published
May 2004
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This report supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Executive Office of Weed and Seed presents results from a Weed and Seed analysis on crime pattern data, thereby documenting its impact on crime.
Abstract
Of the crimes reported most often, violent crime and/or drugs were included by all but 3 of the 98 Weed and Seed sites. Sixty-one percent of the sites mentioned illicit drugs as one of their three top crime issues. Homicide was mentioned by 22.4 percent of the sites as a key crime issue and weapon offenses were mentioned by 19.4 percent. The analysis of crime data from 20 of the 98 sites included a full 6 year time series regarding Weed and Seed sites. Reported crime increases, on average, during the year of implementation, as well as in the first year following implementation. Nineteen of the 98 sites provided 5-year crime series data. By combining the 19 sites with the 20 sites with full crime series data, the analytical pool increased to 39 the proportion of reported crime attributed to the Weed and Seed sites declines in the first-year after implementation. A time series analysis of the 39 sites was conducted on 5 types of crime: homicide, illicit drugs, violence and weapons, property crimes, and other crimes, such as gang activity, domestic violence, and prostitution. The report also displays the annual percentage change for homicides, violence and weapons, property crimes, and other crimes. Result highlights include: (1) the proportion of homicides and property crimes occurring in Weed and Seed target areas to the total jurisdictions’ crimes increases in the initial year; (2) violence and weapon crimes, property crimes, and all other types of crime decrease as a percentage of the host jurisdictions’ crimes as the Weed and Seed sites mature; (3) crimes associated with violence and weapons decrease immediately once a site program starts; and (4) property crime activity shows an increase in reported incidents during the year of strategy initiation at Weed and Seed sites. Charts