An examination of the effect of drug enforcement on the rate of serious crime in Queens County, NY from 1995--2001.
Item
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Title
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An examination of the effect of drug enforcement on the rate of serious crime in Queens County, NY from 1995--2001.
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Identifier
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AAI3169952
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identifier
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3169952
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Creator
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McCabe, James E.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Eli B. Silverman
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Criminology and Penology
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Abstract
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This research explores the relationship between serious crime and drug arrests in Queens New York between the years 1995 an 2001. Over the last decade, New York City experienced a dramatic decrease in crime. One of the more prominent explanations of this crime decrease is a variant of the "Broken Windows" theory posited by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in 1982.;Wilson and Kelling offered the metaphor of the broken widow to describe the process where social control/order breaks down and crime flourishes. This research tests this theory in that it uses drug arrests as a proxy for "broken windows" and FBI Part I Index crimes as a measure of serious crime. Furthermore, the period of time under examination is one when the New York City Police Department undertook a strategic shift in drug enforcement. The NYPD focused resources in six precincts in Queens in two successive "Narcotics Initiatives," to the exclusion of the other ten precincts in the county. These Initiatives, as they were called, concentrated Narcotics enforcement in two regions of Queens at different time periods. The build-up and timing of this effort permits research to look back and see the impact the Initiatives had on crime, compared to other precincts not benefiting from the attention.;The results of the analyses showed that the rate of controlled substance arrest is positively and significantly related to the crime rate. The rate of marijuana arrest rates, however, is significantly and inversely related to the crime rate. The research also showed that closing drug locations through Nuisance Abatement statutes had a significant effect on decreasing the rate of crime. The impact of the Narcotics Initiatives was mixed with little impact on the rate of arrest, limited impact on the rate of crime, a positive impact on the level on Nuisance Abatement closings, and no impact on the level of citizen complaints against the police. Furthermore, citizen complaints against the police is shown to be significantly related to the crime rate, decreased over the course of the study, and did not increase in the wake of the deployment of the Narcotics Initiatives.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
