Conventional law enforcement is reactive—and does little to break the cycle of hostile personal relations between citizens who eventually assault or kill one another. Based on over ten years of experience, a much more effective and preventive policy is community-based conflict resolution by trained citizen volunteers, working with other citizens. Interpersonal violence in the United States can be dramatically reduced if cities adopt such neighborhood justice, like that pioneered by the Community Board Program. So defined, the concept of prevention is a community responsibility maintained by citizens exercising their civic rights.
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References
1.
1. A. D. Bidermanet al., Report on a Pilot Study in the District of Columbia on Victimization and Attitudes toward Law Enforcement (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 9.
2.
2. William G. Skogan, “Disorder, Crime and Community Decline” (Paper presented at the Home Office Conference on Crime and Communities, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, 1986).
3.
3. William G. Skogan, “Executive Summary: Disorder and Community Decline” (Paper, National Institute of Justice, 1986), p. 1.
4.
4. Ibid.
5.
5. James Q. Wilson and G. Kelling, “Broken Windows,”Atlantic Monthly, pp. 29-38 (Mar. 1982).
6.
6. Skogan, “Disorder, Crime and Community Decline,” p. 9.
7.
7. Bidermanet al., Report on a Pilot Study, p. 160.
8.
8. Skogan, “Disorder, Crime and Community Decline,” p. 9.
9.
9. Ibid., p. 12.
10.
10. Jerome Auerbach, Justice without Law? Resolving Disputes without Lawyers (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983).
11.
cf. Sally E. Merry , Urban Danger: Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), p. 27.
12.
12. Wilson and Kelling, “Broken Windows,” p. 31.
13.
13. Frederick DuBow and D. Emmons, “The Community Hypothesis,” in Reactions to Crime, ed. D. A. Lewis (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1981), pp. 167-182.
