DETERRENCE: ​“How New York Beat Crime”

A new study by Professor Franklin Zimring of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law pro­vides an in-depth analy­sis of the fac­tors that influ­enced the dra­mat­ic twen­ty-year decline of street crime in New York City. According to the study, which was recent­ly dis­cussed in Scientific American, the rate of com­mon crimes such as homi­cide, rob­bery and bur­glary dropped by more than 80 per­cent in New York City. By 2009, the homi­cide rate was low­er than it was in 1961. Zimring sug­gests that one of the most influ­en­tial fac­tors in the reduc­tion of crime rates was the improve­ment of polic­ing around the city. Beginning in 1990, New York City added over 7,000 new uni­formed offi­cers. Along with adding new police to the streets, the city imple­ment­ed sev­er­al new strate­gies that were focused on high-crime set­tings. One of the tac­tics was deploy­ing more police offi­cers in crime ​“hotspots” that were deter­mined by sophis­ti­cat­ed data-map­ping tech­nol­o­gy. Zimring con­cludes, ​“The steady, sig­nif­i­cant and cumu­la­tive­ly over­whelm­ing crime decline in New York is proof that cities as we know them need not be incu­ba­tors of rob­bery, rape and may­hem.” The arti­cle also dis­pels some of the mis­con­cep­tions about the drop in crime: Zimring states that it was not due to changes in the eth­nic make­up of the city, to shifts in illic­it drug use, or to an increased use of incarceration.

(F. Zimring, ​“How New York Beat Crime,” Scientific American Magazine, August 2011). Zimring is the William G. Simon Professor of Law and Wolfen Distinguished Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. A pod­cast dis­cussing the results of his study is also available.

See Deterrence. Read more Studies on the death penal­ty. The homi­cide rate declined sharply in New York City with­out the use of the death penal­ty. There has been no exe­cu­tion in the state since 1963. The state had a death penal­ty law between 1995 and 2004, when it was declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by the NY Court of Appeals. None of the death sen­tences were upheld by the Court.