Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't and What's Promising

Here's a link to a report organized and funded by the Department of Justice in which a number of criminologists discuss the latest research on crime prevention.  There might be some useful information in here for how New Orleans might deal with the problem of violent crime.  Keeping in mind the root causes of violent crime which are located in entrenched, sustained poverty and racism and social isolation (and the long term, fundamental solutions that this requires--i.e., jobs, schools, mental health), this report might offer some ideas on more immediate solutions.

Chapter 8 of the report focuses on police.  Changes in policing is often one of the more immediate moves that municipalities can make.  While it doesn't address the root causes of violent behavior, the report suggests that measured, strategically located community policing can have some effect on violent behavior. I offer an excerpt below: