Innovative Strategies

1
Innovative Strategies

• Jack McDevitt
• Institute on Race and Justice
• College of Criminal Justice
• Northeastern University

2
New approaches to defining high risk offenders

• Most high risk offender lists are developed from
  criminal history information (e.g. more than 3
  prior gun arrests)
• This methodology has a number of limitations
• Based only on crimes known to police
• Little information on positive steps offenders
  have taken to improve their lives

3
Implications

• Current lists may miss some individuals who are
  currently causing problems in the community but
  have not been arrested or arrested a sufficient
  number of times
• Current lists may include individuals who have
  made mistakes in the past but are now are in the
  process of improving their lives

4
Costs

• Community can become frustrated with law
  enforcement if they see enforcement efforts being
  directed at the wrong individuals
• Community may support enforcement efforts more
  strongly when they see these efforts being
  directed at the right individuals

5
Solutions

• Add additional information on an individuals
  efforts to change his or her life
• Sources
• Probation Records
• Probation and Parole Officers
• Treatment Records
• Street Workers
• Community Police Officers

6
Solutions

• Efforts to reach those high risk individuals
  who have not yet reached the threshold of the
  Career Criminal
• Need to include street intelligence
• Sources
• Local Community Police Officers
• Probation or Parole Officers
• Community members

7
Alternative approaches to defining high risk
offenders

• Boston has developed an approach that adds the
  notion of high risk families to supplement the
  list of high risk offenders

8
The Boston Comprehensive Community Safety
Initiative

• 457 individuals identified
• Reviewed all individuals arrested or FIOed in the
  area in the previous two years
• Had generated 11,685 arraignments
• 72 have been involved with at least one other
  state agency in addition to police/courts
• Represent 2.4 of the Grove Hall neighborhoods
  population (of 19,100)

9
The Smith Family

• 4 generations, 36 known individuals
• 200 arraignments (adult juvenile)
• Founders of the MIC street gang
• Charges include accessory to murder, shootings,
  heroin cocaine trafficking, home invasions
  carjacking

10
Implications for Policy

• Some families are facing multiple problems in
  multiple areas such as crime, health, social
  services, housing
• Multiple stressors on these families but also
  multiple levers to work with the family
• Boston Police identified only a small number of
  the 457 individuals originally identified needed
  criminal justice attention exclusively
• The vast majority need some forms of prevention
  programming
• Boston Police have involved clinical social
  workers to work with these families

11
Implications for Policy

• In a few cases most of the family members are
  involved in gangs and crime
• When entire families are involved with crime,
  efforts to deal with individual family members
  are complicated

12
Identifying high risk offender locations

• Grove Hall Section of Boston a number of impact
  players have been causing trouble in this
  neighborhood even though they have outstanding
  cases and have been served with warrants
• While awaiting trial or upon release from prison
  a large number of these individuals lived in a
  small number of multi-unit apartment buildings

13
Grove Hall Initiative

• A partnership of Boston Police, the Attorney
  General, and local community groups developed a
  strategy to deal with this problem
• They approached the managers and private security
  firms that worked in these units and asked them
  to develop a partnership to deal with this
  problem.

14
Problem Identified

• Lack of communication
• Security companies did not know who had been
  served with warrants
• Boston police did not know about a relatively
  large number of criminal incidents that had been
  investigated by security companies (many
  involving these individuals) but not reported to
  police

15
Implications

• Many communities have identified new ways to deal
  with those who are causing the most gun violence
  in our neighborhoods
• These efforts may involve developing new ways to
  identify the highest risk offenders
• They may also involve new strategies to deter
  those individuals at risk for becoming involved
  with gun crime
• The community can play a role in helping law
  enforcement meet these challenges