Returning Justice to the Community : The Indianapolis Juvenile Restorative Justice Experiment

by Ed McGarrel, Ed McGarrel

In the early 1990s the Kansas City Police Department experimented with a proactive philosophy of crime reduction called directed police patrolling. The initiative swam against the current of contemporary criminology, which maintains that crime is largely the mere result of poverty, racial injustice, and inequality. While such issues are certainly aggravating factors, case studies in both Kansas City and Indianapolis have shown that directed police patrols – the assignment of police patrols to areas plagued by violent crime – can have a significant chilling effect on a city’s violent crime rate. This report presents the results of a study of a directed police patrol initiative that was intended to reduce firearms crime. Additionally, this study informs a debate that has emerged given the reduction of crime in the United States during the 1990s. Specifically, to what extend do the police influence the level of crime?

Paperback

Published August 1, 2000