Community Organizing, Environmental Change and Neighborhood Crime

Abstract

This paper addresses the effects of an urban neighborhood's response to a significant increase in crime, drugs, and other incivilities during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Residents organized a major effort to stabilize the neighborhood that included implementation of a defensible space plan. Comparisons of crime data and of residents' perceptions of crime between the pre- and post-implementation periods show significant improvements. The data provide greater support for the opportunity model of community crime prevention than the community model. Cautions are provided regarding transplanting the same plan elsewhere.