Travels through crime and place : community building as crime control / William DeLeon-Granados.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeLeon-Granados, William, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Crime prevention--United States--Citizen participation.

Crime prevention.

United States.

Political participation.

Community development, Urban--United States.

Community development, Urban.

Physical Description:

xiii, 179 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston : Northeastern University Press, [1999]

Summary:

Community-based Crime reduction programs are not as effective as they should be and often create disturbing and dangerous tensions along class and racial lines, says William DeLeon-Granados in this groundbreaking work. He argues that current strategies remain rooted in a punitive criminal justice system and fail to address the heart of the crime problem. Instead, programs that exploit community power should focus on fostering informal social controls and indigenous problem solving.

Going beyond traditional criminological and sociological research methods, DeLeon-Granados traveled across the United States to cities with model community-based programs to experience and observe first-hand efforts to build community and control crime. He visited and lived with public officials and citizens to uncover and assess the strengths and weaknesses of various ways of establishing community -- leadership, community policing citizen mobilization, urban design and planning, and laws.

DeLeon-Granados's eloquent narrative style combines peoples' stories with the author's personal reflections and analysis to provide a richly textured, cohesive, and accessible picture of community-building as a response to chine and social problems. Challenging current discourse, the author proposes a new conceptual framework for crime control, asserting that effective problem-solving strategies must restore community strength and forge new relations, connections, and shared values among citizens.

This is an absorbing account that offers a fresh perspective on the important relationship between crime and place. It will appeal to criminologists, urban sociologists, and general readers alike.

Contents:

Introduction: To stop a crime, call a community 3

1. Mayberry versus Starsky and Hutch 19

Leadership striving to form community

2. No Humans Involved 34

Policing with community in mind

3. Spy Shops and Nasty Old People 49

Residents mobilizing with cops to build community

4. Incivilities and Shared Conceptions 69

Is the community project doomed in our culture?

5. Scene of the Crime 85

Designing space to evoke prosocial community behavior

6. New Urbanism 106

Connecting ecology to form community

7. The Power of Connection 123

Understanding participation and ties

8. Communitarianism 130

Using laws to fashion community

Conclusion: Beyond myths of the past to other strategies 145.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 169-172) and index.

ISBN:

1555534201

1555534198

OCLC:

41572644