National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

VIOLENCE IN URBAN AMERICA

Mobilizing a Response

Summary of a Conference

Committee on Law and Justice

Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

National Research Council and

The John F. Kennedy School of Government Harvard University

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.
1994

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Robert M. White is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce Alberts and Dr. Robert M. White are chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

This project was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Support for the case study in Appendix A was provided by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 94-65431

International Standard Book Number 0-309-05039-1

Additional copies of this report are available from:
National Academy Press,
2101 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20418

B312

Printed in the United States of America

Copyright 1994 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS

L. ANNETTE ABRAMS,

Department of Sociology, Michigan State University

MICHAEL BEAVER, Director of Public Safety,

Indianapolis, IN

GORDON L. BERLIN,

Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, New York, NY

SHAY BILCHIK, Associate Deputy Attorney General,

U.S. Department of Justice

JOHN A. CARVER, Chief,

Pretrial Services Agency, Washington, DC

MICHELE CAVATAIO,

Office of the Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

MICHAEL CHERTOFF,

U.S. Attorney, Newark, NJ

PHILIP J. COOK,

Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University

SYLVESTER DAUGHTRY, Chief,

Police Department, Greensboro, NC

BEVERLY WATTS DAVIS, Executive Director,

San Antonio Fighting Back, San Antonio, TX

ROSS DECK, Senior Policy Analyst,

Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President

PETER EDELMAN, Counselor,

Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

JULIE FAGAN, Director,

Drug-Free Neighborhoods Division, Public and Indian Housing, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

JAMES FOREMAN, Coordinator,

Metro Orange Hat Coalition, Washington, DC

LUCY FRIEDMAN,

Victim Services, New York, NY

RICHARD W. FRIEDMAN, Director,

Juvenile Justice Advisory Council, Baltimore, MD

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE, Special Advisor,

Office of Senator Bob Graham

STEPHEN GOLDSMITH, Mayor,

Indianapolis, IN

RALPH E. GRIFFITH, Director,

Risk Management and Security, Prince William County Schools, Manassas, VA

WILLIAM GRINKER, Fellow,

Twentieth Century Fund, Brooklyn, NY

NANCY GUERRA,

Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago

DEBORAH HAACK,

Colorado Department of Health, Denver

JOHN HAGAN, Faculty of Law,

University of Toronto, Canada

JOEL F. HANDLER,

School of Law, University of California, Los Angeles

FRANCIS X. HARTMANN, Executive Director,

Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management and Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

PHILIP HEYMANN, Deputy Attorney General,

U.S. Department of Justice

HOPE HILL, Professor,

Psychology Department, Howard University

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

HAL HOLZMAN, Research Analyst,

Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

MICHAEL B. JANIS, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing,

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

SUZAN JOHNSON COOK,

Domestic Policy Office, Executive Office of the President

PAUL JUAREZ,

Department of Family Medicine, Charles Drew Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA

JANET JUBAN,

Texans' War on Drugs, Houston

ED JURITH, Director of Legislative Affairs,

Office of National Drug Control Policy, Executive Office of the President

JILL E. KORBIN, Associate Professor,

Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University

MADELEINE KUNIN, Deputy Secretary,

U.S. Department of Education

JOYCE A. LADNER, Vice President,

Academic Affairs, Howard University

LINDA LANTIERI, Coordinator,

Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, New York, NY

GEORGE LATIMER, Director,

Office of Special Actions, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

ROBERTA K. LEE, Professor,

Community Health, School of Nursing, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston

E.O. McALLISTER, Executive Director,

Dade County Public Schools Police, Miami, FL

ELIZABETH McCANN, Manager of Public Safety,

Denver, CO

JOAN McCORD,

Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, Philadelphia

JAMES MERCY, Chief of Epidemiology,

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA

WILLIAM MODZELESKI, Director,

Drugs, Planning, and Outreach Staff, U.S. Department of Education

MARK H. MOORE (Chair),

Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

GENE MORRISON,

Office of Special Actions, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

GEORGE NAPPER, JR., Commissioner,

Children and Youth Services, Atlanta, GA

RICHARD NEAL, Commissioner of Police,

City of Philadelphia, PA

MARY NELSON, President,

Bethel New Life, Inc., Chicago, IL

JOHN NORQUIST, Mayor,

Milwaukee, WI

JUDGE THOMAS K. PETERSON,

Circuit Court Juvenile Division, Miami, FL

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

ALBERT J. REISS, JR.,

Department of Sociology, Yale University

EDWARD G. RENDELL, Mayor,

Philadelphia, PA

WILLIAM RITTER, District Attorney,

Denver, CO

LAURIE ROBINSON, Associate Deputy Attorney General and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs,

U.S. Department of Justice

DOMINGO RODRIGUEZ, Vice President,

Chicanos por la Causa, Phoenix, AZ

JEFFREY A. ROTH,

Abt Associates, Bethesda, MD

ARMANDO RUIZ, Executive Director,

South Mountain YMCA, Phoenix, AZ

ROBERT J. SAMPSON,

Department of Sociology, University of Chicago

ELLEN SCHALL,

Robert Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

KURT L. SCHMOKE, Mayor,

Baltimore, MD

MICHAEL SCHRUNK, District Attorney,

Portland, OR

STUART SIMS, State's Attorney,

Baltimore, MD

LAURA SKAFF, Assistant Commissioner,

Social Services Administration, Minnesota Department of Human Services, St. Paul

MICHAEL SMITH, President,

Vera Institute of Justice, Inc., New York, NY

DAVID STEVENSON,

Office of the Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

MIKE STIERS, Division Chief,

Investigative Services, Aurora Police Department, CO

DONALD SYKES, Director,

Office of Community Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

MARTY TAPSCOTT, Chief,

Police Department, Richmond, VA

PAUL TAUER, Mayor,

Aurora, CO

JOYCE N. THOMAS, President,

Center for Child Protection and Family Support, Washington, DC

NANCY THOMPSON,

Governor's Office, Lincoln, NE

STEVE THOMPSON, State Senator,

Atlanta, GA

CHRISTY VISHER, Science Advisor to the Director,

National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice

LOUIE L. WAINWRIGHT, President and Chief Executive Officer,

Wainwright Judicial Services, Tallahassee, FL

JOEL WALLMAN,

Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY

DENNIS WEST, Director,

Public Housing Authority, Portland, OR

DOTTIE WHAM, State Senator,

Denver, CO

CATHY SPATZ WIDOM, Director,

Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, State University of New York, Albany

WILLIAM WIIST,

Houston Department of Health and Human Services, TX

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

COMMITTEE ON LAW AND JUSTICE

JEROME H. SKOLNICK (Chair),

School of Law, University of California, Berkeley

JOAN McCORD (Vice Chair),

Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University

ROBERT BORUCH,

Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

JOHN C. COFFEE, JR.,

Coumbia University School of Law

PHILIP J. COOK,

Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University

DAVID P. FARRINGTON,

Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University

ROBERT KAGAN,

Center for Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley

MARK H. MOORE,

Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

ALBERT J. REISS, JR. (Ex officio), Chair,

Panel on the Understanding and Control of Violent Behavior

JOHN E. ROLPH,

The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California

ELLEN SCHALL,

Robert Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University

LLOYD STREET,

College of Human Ecology, Cornell University

NEIL VIDMAR,

School of Law, Duke University

BARBARA YNGVESSON,

School of Social Science, Hampshire College

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
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Preface

The violence now occurring within our cities is a national scourge. The fact that minority youth are disproportionately its victims makes it a tragedy and a disgrace as well. For mayors seeking to establish civil, secure communities, no problem seems more urgent.

Yet, what to do remains uncertain.

The problem is not necessarily in the "science base" that society can draw on in searching for plausibly effective interventions. There are plenty of theories about the causes of violence, and no small number of facts useful in testing those theories. (For a complete survey, see Understanding and Preventing Violence.) And every day science is making progress in clarifying the theories and testing them against empirical evidence.

The problem, instead, lies in converting hypotheses about potential causes of violence into operational programs that have some prospect of success in reducing one or more aspects of the violence problem and that could be adopted and effectively implemented by hard-pressed communities and governmental organizations. In short, the problem lies in the domain of "action science" rather than "basic science."

To help deal more effectively with violence as it happens in today's cities and to accelerate the growth of the "action science" underlying violence prevention efforts, the National Research Council and the Kennedy School of Government teamed up to organize a special kind of conference. The conference design was based on several different principles.

First, we focused attention on what should be done rather than what

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

was known. To do this, we gave people a case study to consider in which the problem of violence in a particular city, along with its first moves to begin solving it, were laid out.

Second, we looked at the problem from the vantage point of a particular governmental actor—a mayor. That was based more on a judgment about where the problem lies than what was the most effective level at which to take action. We remained open to the idea that to deal with the problem effectively, action might be required at other levels of government.

Third, we sought to combine the knowledge and experience of academics and practitioners; community activists as well as government officials; officials from the federal as well as local governments; officials from many different functional areas of government, ranging from maternal and child health to prosecutors and correctional administrators.

The ultimate aim of the conference was not only to advance the learning of the people who attended, but also to create a record of the thoughts, ideas, and proposals that emerged. How well we succeeded in this effort, we leave to the reader to judge.

What success we did achieve in both stimulating and organizing practical thought about how best to deal with violence in the cities owes a great deal to the organizers and participants. We owe a particular debt to four sets of individuals whose contributions made the greatest difference. First is the mayors, who gave generously of their valuable time both in advising on the structure of the conference and as key participants. Both as leading representatives of their communities and, we believe, as thoughtful innovators, they brought unique perspectives to the conference: Stephen Goldsmith, Indianapolis, Indiana; John Norquist, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Edward G. Rendell, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Kurt L. Schmoke, Baltimore, Maryland; and Paul Tauer, Aurora, Colorado.

The second group are the rapporteurs, who were instrumental in shaping the conference and working as partners with the mayors in the management of the five task forces: Philip J. Cook, Duke University; Francis X. Hartmann, Harvard University; Michael Smith, Vera Institute of Justice, Inc.; Cathy Spatz Widom, State University of New York, Albany; and Jeffrey A. Roth, Abt Associates Inc. Third, we are indebted to the federal agency officials who advised on the structure of the conference and were invaluable as participants; their names are found in the list of participants. And fourth, the event and this publication would not have been possible without the efforts of the staff of the National Research Council's Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education: Susanne A. Stoiber, director, Jeffrey A. Roth, consultant, and Nancy A. Crowell, research associate, of the Division on Social and Economic Studies; and Eugenia Grohman, associate director for reports.

Finally, we are also extremely grateful to the foundations and govern-

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
×

ment agencies that supported this activity: the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sponsored and funded the conference, and the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice sponsored the case study discussed in this report and reprinted in Appendix A.

Mark Moore, Chair

Conference on Urban Violence

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
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VIOLENCE IN URBAN AMERICA
Mobilising a response

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1994. Violence in Urban America: Mobilizing a Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4419.
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In this summary of a unique conference on urban violence, mayors, police chiefs, local, state, and federal agency experts, and researchers provide a wealth of practical ideas to combat violence in urban America. This book will be a valuable guide to concerned community residents as well as local officials in designing new approaches to the violence that afflicts America's cities.

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