The Economist swoops into Chicago and analyzes the region's lackluster response to the city's recent spat of gun-related violence:
April's violence has inspired new plans, some more helpful than others. The ineffectual governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, announced on May 6th a $150m scheme for which there is no $150m. Chicago's police chief intends to make residents feel safer by sending out SWAT teams in full battle gear. More promisingly, Mr Daley wants to keep pools and parks open late and offer more teenagers summer jobs. This will help keep more children busy and out of harm. But it will have little effect on the most violent.
What's the best course of action? John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor David Kennedy tells the magazine that the most effective deterrence plans combine outreach to gang members (alerting them of available services) and severe disincentives for violence. Project Safe Neighborhoods, run through the Department of Justice, is one such program:
Chicago's PSN includes tough gun policing, federal prosecutions and—most important, or so researchers found—meetings with former felons to deter them from returning to crime. Over PSN's first two years, the districts it targeted saw a 37% drop in quarterly homicide rates.
But while the Tribune praised PSN in a 2005 editorial and a 2007 research paper found it to be successful at stymieing murders, it's remained largely underutilized, only operating in six of the city's 25 police districts. Sens. Durbin and Obama are pushing for increased federal funding and other legislators at the state and federal level serious about reducing street violence should join their call to broaden the plan's scope.
(h/t Beachwood Reporter)
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