Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-9-2024
Publication Title
Criminology
Volume
62
Issue
1
First Page
156
Last Page
171
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12363
Abstract
Many U.S. cities witnessed both de-policing and increased crime in 2020, yet whether the former contributed to the latter remains unclear. Indeed, much of what is known about the effects of proactive policing on crime comes from studies that evaluated highly focused interventions atypical of day-to-day policing, used cities as the unit of analysis, or could not rule out endogeneity. This study addresses each of these issues, thereby advancing the evidence base concerning the effects of policing on crime. Leveraging two exogenous shocks presented by the onset of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and social unrest after the murder of George Floyd, we evaluated the effects of sudden and sustained reductions in high-discretion policing on crime at the neighborhood level in Denver, Colorado. Multilevel models accounting for trends in prior police activity, neighborhood structure, seasonality, and population mobility revealed mixed results. On the one hand, large-scale reductions in stops and drug-related arrests were associated with significant increases in violent and property crimes, respectively. On the other hand, fewer disorder arrests did not affect crime. These results were not universal across neighborhoods. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of debates concerning the appropriate role of policing in the 21st century.
Recommended Citation
Nix, Justin; Huff, Jessica; Wolfe, Scott E.; Pyrooz, David C.; and Mourtgos, Scott M., "When police pull back: Neighborhood-level effects of de-policing on violent and property crime, a research note" (2024). Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications. 304.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/criminaljusticefacpub/304
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Corrigendum to “When police pull back: Neighborhood-level effects of de-policing on violent and property crime, a research note”
Funded by the University of Nebraska at Omaha Open Access Fund
Comments
The pdfs pass the Adobe accessibility checker prior to upload.
This was published open access under the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wiley open access publishing agreement.
A correction was issued on March 12, 2025 to this article and that correction can be found in the additional files.
Corrigendum to “When police pull back: Neighborhood-level effects of de-policing on violent and property crime, a research note” Volume 63Issue 1Criminology, pages: 294-297