Measuring Police Effectiveness in Violence Reduction: Applications of Epidemiological Criminology

Research on the nature and effects of violent criminal behavior has been influenced in large part by theories and methods developed within the fields of criminology and criminal justice. While criminologists have traditionally sought to advance biological, psychological and sociological perspectives on the nature of crime, scholars of criminal justice have centered on policy solutions carried out by the institutions of police, courts and corrections. Researchers working in the fields of health policy and public health law research have long pointed out that crime is injurious to health on a range of fronts, ranging from individual physical injury and emotional trauma to the costs incurred by our health care system. It is at this intersection of crime and health that a new and exciting strand of interdisciplinary research, termed Epidemiological Criminology, is growing. This presentation reports on a study that applies and integrates theories and methods from criminology and public health. It involves a mixed-method evaluation of police effectiveness in the reduction of violence in Philadelphia's highest crime neighborhoods. The study consisted of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an intervention involving foot patrol officers assigned to 60 areas of the city (the ‘treatment'). The presenters will then discuss other components of the research involving qualitative and quantitative methods designed to measure ‘dosage' as well as identify and explain the legal and other mechanisms deployed by foot patrol officers in shaping behaviors and environments. The presenters further explore the crime-health nexus while contributing to theory and methods development within Epidemiological Criminology.