Crime and Policing Revisited — Anthony A. Braga (2015)
Drawing on decades of policing research, Braga argues that police can reduce crime when they use evidence-based strategies. Rather than relying on traditional tactics alone, effective policing focuses on recurring problems, high-risk places, community partnerships, and interventions tailored to local conditions.
1. Effective Policing Requires a New Approach
2. Community Policing
3. Problem-Oriented Policing
4. Hot Spots Policing
5. Focused Deterrence
6. Data-Driven and Adaptive Policing
⭐ Star Facts
- Traditional policing alone—random patrols, rapid response, and routine investigations—has limited effects on crime.
- Only about 3% of arrests are influenced by faster police response times.
- Only about 21% of major crimes are solved, often because of evidence or witnesses at the scene.
- Crime is highly concentrated, with about half of all crime occurring in a small number of places.
- Problem-oriented policing reduced crime in 10 rigorous evaluations, while 43 of 45 additional studies also reported positive results.
- Hot spots policing consistently reduces crime without simply displacing it to nearby areas.
- Focused deterrence, including Boston’s Operation Ceasefire, significantly reduced gang violence.
- The most effective policing is focused, evidence-based, community-oriented, and continuously adapted using data.