The Effects of “Pulling Levers” Focused Deterrence Strategies on Crime

• Published in: Campbell systematic review 2012, Vol.8 (1), p.1-90
• Main Authors: Braga, Anthony A., Weisburd, David L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Area Studies; Behavior; Behavior Patterns; Coding; Collaboration; Community Relations; Community Resources; Crime; Crime prevention; Criminal investigations; Deterrence; Diagnostic Teaching; Editing; Editors; Effect Size; Evidence; Gangs; Homicide; Information Seeking; Justice; Law enforcement; Learning Problems; Meta Analysis; Neighborhoods; Police; Psychological Patterns; Punishment; Research design; Sanctions; Search Strategies; Selection Criteria; Social Services; Systematic review; Trends; Violence; Violent crime
• ISSN: 1891-1803; 1891-1803
• DOI: 10.4073/csr.2012.6

This Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of focused deterrence strategies known as “pulling levels” in reducing crime. The review summarises findings from 10 studies, all of which report evidence from programmes in the US. Pulling levers focused deterrence strategies are associated with a medium‐sized crime reduction effect. Nine out of 10 studies reported a statistically significant positive effect. There is a strongly significant medium size effect average effect across all studies. Gang or group intervention programs had the largest effect, followed by the drug market intervention programs, with the smallest but still statistically significant effect for the high‐risk individuals programs. All included studies use non‐randomized experimental designs, which have a risk of over‐stating impact. However, the effect size is large enough to have reasonable confidence in the effectiveness of these programs. BACKGROUND A number of American police departments have been experimenting with new problem‐oriented policing frameworks to prevent gang and group‐involved violence generally known as the “pulling levers” focused deterrence strategies. Focused deterrence strategies honor core deterrence ideas, such as increasing risks faced by offenders, while finding new and creative ways of deploying traditional and non‐traditional law enforcement tools to do so, such as directly communicating incentives and disincentives to targeted offenders. Pioneered in Boston to halt serious gang violence, the focused deterrence framework has been applied in many American cities through federally sponsored violence prevention programs. In its simplest form, the approach consists of selecting a particular crime problem, such as gang homicide; convening an interagency working group of law enforcement, social‐service, and community‐based practitioners; conducting research to identify key offenders, groups, and behavior patterns; framing a response to offenders and groups of offenders that uses a varied menu of sanctions (”pulling levers”) to stop them from continuing their violent behavior; focusing social services and community resources on targeted offenders and groups to match law enforcement prevention efforts; and directly and repeatedly communicating with offenders to make them understand why they are receiving this special attention. These new strategic approaches have been applied to a range of crime problems, such as overt drug markets and individual repeat of