What’s weird, at least to me, is that many (mostly from the political left) seem to dismiss the never-before-seen increase in homicides in Baltimore as just some random uptick. “You know,” I’ve been told (and more than once), “violent crime is up in New York City, too.” Are you fucking crazy?! Homicide in Baltimore is up 250 percent over-fucking-night! And…
Search Results for: "Broken windows"
Shootings up in NYC
Shootings are up 20 percent this year. Bratton is blaming marijuana. I doubt it. But maybe. I’m certainly willing to consider the idea. Most liberals, I find, never ever consider the idea that their advocacy might have unintended consequences, like more young black men getting murdered. That said, Bratton pointed to drug dealers getting killed. That was illegal last year…
President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2): The Problem with Procedural Justice
Three years ago I wrote about the problem of “procedural justice.” If you’ve misplaced your copy of William Stuntz’s The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, just read Leon Neyfakh’s review in the Boston Globe. Procedural justice still matters because the Presidential Report places emphasis on it: “Police and sheriffs’ departments should adopt procedural justice as the guiding principle for internal…
Policing in California, post Prop. 47
Being in NYC, I miss a lot of what happens west of the Mississippi (and sometimes even west of the Hudson). So I haven’t really been following California’s Proposition 47. Recently I posted about a minor increase in property crime in LA, which was both news to me and made intuitive sense. Sure, it sounds logical to focus law enforcement…
Grammar 101
Grammar 101: For students who should know, but don’t. © 2015 by Professor Peter Moskos Here’s a PDF version. If you want this in a nice little printed booklet you can read on the subway, buy it on Amazon (just $6.95). Order of Contents Introduction: Is Grammar 101 right for you? Rule #1: Write in complete sentences Rule #2: The…
Blue Flu (II): Arrest “only when you need to”
Conor Friedersdorf has a excellent piece in The Atlantic, “The NYPD’s Insubordination—and Why the Right Should Oppose It.” [And just for the record I did scoop the New York Post, albeit only be a few hours.] There’s lot here that doesn’t fit in our normal political divide. And I love that cognitive dissonance! You’ve got union blue-collar workers, and the…
“A fairer, safer city”
I stumbled across this column by Harry Siegel yesterday in the Daily News while getting my shoes shined. It’s bar far the best thing I’ve read in a while about the current state of crime and New York City. Read the whole thing. But here are some highlights: Pay no mind to the shrill voices on the left warning of…
Laments of the Qualitative Researcher
I don’t apply for many grants, in part because they’re so hard for a qualitative researcher to get. Ethnographic work and qualitative research isn’t taken seriously in a generally quantitative field. My research doesn’t follow the standard “theory, hypothesis, experiment, verify” model of hard science. Nor should it. But it’s hard to get grants or get published in Criminology if…
The Streets of Rome: The Realities of Problem-Oriented Policing, by Peter W. Maher
Back in October, 2012, I had a guest blogger, Jan Haldipur, on “How the iPhone Changed the Way We Do Ethnography: A Methodological Note.” It’s worth a read. Today I proudly feature Peter W. Maher. He completed his undergraduate studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. (and can be contacted at pmaher@hamilton.edu). Peter did some work with police that is…
Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down
More murders in Chicago. Fewer in NYC. Clearly something is going on. But generally you’ll hear nothing but crickets (or winter winds) blow through the ivory towers. It’s a real shame. These days, most academics will (almost reluctantly) concede that effective policing may play a roll in reducing homicide. And yet still very few academics would dare consider the hypothesis…