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The rise and fall of New York murder: zero tolerance or crack's decline?
Open accessAbstract
The striking reduction in homicide in New York City between 1991 and 1997 has been claimed as a great success for a 'new policing tactic dubbed 'zero tolerance' - the aggressive enforcement of minor offences. The evidence that changes in policing made 'all the difference' is largely circumstantial, however, Homicide rates were at an all-time high in 1990-91 and had begun to decline before any radical changes in policing policy were instituted. The 1985-91 'murder spike' has been attributed largely to the simultaneous expanding crack cocaine 'epidemic' so the subsequent reduction in murder is related logically to the contraction of crack cocaine markets in the 1990s. There is some tentative support for the impact of policing on an already falling crime rate, but the changes in policing between 1991 and 1997 cannot adequately be described as 'zero tolerance'. The author argues that the 'New York story' has been over-simplified and over-sold, and that 'zero tolerance' is an inappropriate language for police policy or practice.
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Cited by
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Weisburd, D., & Eck, J. E. (2004) · The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science · doi:10.1177/0002716203262548 · Cited by 790
What Can Police Do to Reduce Crime, Disorder, and Fear?
Eck, J., & Weisburd, D. (2007) · International Handbook of Penology and Criminal Justice · doi:10.1201/9781420053883.ch14 · Cited by 527
POLICING CRIME AND DISORDER HOT SPOTS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL*
BRAGA, A. A., & BOND, B. J. (2008) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2008.00124.x · Cited by 497
Coffin, P. O., Galea, S., Ahern, J., Leon, A. C., Vlahov, D., & Tardiff, K. (2003) · Addiction · doi:10.1046/j.1360-0443.2003.00376.x · Cited by 334
Metadata
- Authors
- Bowling, B.
- Venue
- British Journal of Criminology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1999-09-01
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 531-554
- ISSN
- 0007-0955 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-3529
- OpenAlex
- W1988586386
- Cited by
- 195
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 14.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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- Bowling, B. (1999). The rise and fall of New York murder: zero tolerance or crack's decline? British Journal of Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/39.4.531
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