Invest in citizens to reduce crime

By Thomas D. Boston

By now the metaphor that “it takes a village to raise a child” has become widely accepted as part of our lexicon. Yet the “village” that is required to mold our children into productive members of society is in many ways similar to the village required to solve our crime problem.

Recently I conducted research into the patterns of violent crimes in Atlanta and Chicago. The research revealed that violent crimes are more likely to occur in neighborhoods that have high concentrations of poverty, elevated rates of vacant housing and high unemployment rates — but we know this intuitively.

For example, assume you are walking alone and have an option to choose between two paths; the first runs through a neighborhood that is characterized by extreme poverty, vacant buildings, high unemployment and other forms of social and economic distress. The second leads through a pleasant neighborhood that has the opposite characteristics. Which would you choose?

Most people would choose the second path on the assumption that it would reduce their chances of being a crime victim. But herein lies the dilemma — we are never likely to have sufficient police resources to patrol all distressed neighborhoods in Atlanta or in other major cities. Furthermore, while violent crimes are more likely to occur in distressed neighborhoods, they occur in other communities as well. So, what is the solution?

The first obvious fact is that while sufficient police resources are absolutely essential, such resources are not sufficient to solve the city’s crime problem. Among the eight peer cities examined in the AJC’s five-part investigation titled, “The AJC Atlanta Project,” Atlanta ranked second among peers for the number of police officers per 1,000 residents.

However, it also ranks second in regards to the violent crime rate. The latter ranking should not be interpreted a failure necessarily because we have no idea how bad Atlanta’s crime rate would be were there not so many police per capita. What we can say, however, is that more police alone is not sufficient to solve Atlanta’s crime problem.

We can find the elements of the solution if we simply investigate the numerous communities of Atlanta that have been revitalized. Drastic reductions in violent crime have usually followed; even though violent crimes are often replaced by property crimes.

While there is no such thing as a good crime, violent crimes impose an especially heavy burdens on society. Neighborhoods that experienced improvements in the quality of life such as housing quality, housing affordability, green space and recreational space, schooling and, especially, active civic engagement have witnessed significant reductions in violent crime.

The village I have in mind consists of a combination of adequate police resources, strategies centered on improving housing and neighborhood quality and affordability, and increasing the civic engagement of residents.

Finally, I can anticipate one question. If we are currently unable to fully staff the Police Department, why in the world should we devote scarce resources to building more livable communities? Let me answer the question by reversing it — if we had more livable communities, crime would not consume so much of our scarce resources.

To emphasize this point, my estimate of the cost of the 25,422 crimes that occurred in Atlanta 2009 YTD is $286 million! I derived this figure by simply taking the 2009 YTD crimes and multiplying the number of crimes that occurred in each category by the average costs to society of that type of crime; using authoritative studies commissioned by the National Institute of Criminal Justice. The estimates include the victim costs and the burden on the criminal justice system.

By preventing three murders from occurring, along with the lives that are saved we would save the taxpayers of Atlanta over $10 million. This amount would be a handsome addition to any neighborhood redevelopment effort. In the 1990s, the violent crime rate at the public housing projects that formerly occupied the site where Centennial Place now stands was 37 times the national average.

Today, that same site is surrounded by enormous tax generating venues , including the Georgia Aquarium and the New World of Coca-Cola. Imagine what would have been the human and financial costs of not revitalizing that location.

Thomas D. Boston is a professor of economics at Georgia Tech and CEO of EuQuant, an economic consulting company.