Community Monitoring and Crime: Evidence from Chicago's Safe Passage Program

60 Pages Posted: 12 Jun 2020

See all articles by Robert M Gonzalez

Robert M Gonzalez

Georgia Institute of Technology - School of Economics

Sarah Komisarow

Duke University - Stanford School of Public Policy

Date Written: May 5, 2020

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of community-based monitoring on crime in the context of a school safety initiative that employed community members to monitor city blocks during students' travel to and from school. Although we find that total crime decreased by 17% relative to neighboring non-treated blocks, these main effects are not the complete story. We find evidence of treatment spillovers in blocks closest to treated areas, but we also uncover cross-crime substitution within treated blocks, intertemporal reallocation of crime to non-monitored periods, and spatial displacement of crime into areas farther away from treated blocks.

Keywords: community monitoring, crime, deterrence, crime spillovers, Safe Passage

JEL Classification: K42, D70, H44

Suggested Citation

Gonzalez, Robert M and Komisarow, Sarah, Community Monitoring and Crime: Evidence from Chicago's Safe Passage Program (May 5, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3604401 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3604401

Robert M Gonzalez (Contact Author)

Georgia Institute of Technology - School of Economics ( email )

217 Habersham
Atlanta, GA 30332
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.robertmgonzalez.com

Sarah Komisarow

Duke University - Stanford School of Public Policy ( email )

Durham, NC

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