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Community monitoring and crime: Evidence from Chicago's Safe Passage Program

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  • Gonzalez, Robert
  • Komisarow, Sarah

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of community-based monitoring on crime in the context of a school safety initiative that employed community members to monitor city blocks during students' travel to and from school. Although we find that total crime decreased by 17% relative to neighboring non-treated blocks, these main effects are not the complete story. We find evidence of treatment spillovers in blocks closest to treated areas, but we also uncover cross-crime substitution within treated blocks, intertemporal reallocation of crime to non-monitored periods, and spatial displacement of crime into areas farther away from treated blocks. Our estimates of the benefit-cost ratio associated with each additional civilian-year of community monitoring are much larger than traditional estimates of each additional police officer-year.

Suggested Citation

  • Gonzalez, Robert & Komisarow, Sarah, 2020. "Community monitoring and crime: Evidence from Chicago's Safe Passage Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:191:y:2020:i:c:s0047272720301146
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104250
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    Cited by:

    1. Domínguez, Magdalena & Montolio, Daniel, 2021. "Bolstering community ties as a mean of reducing crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 916-945.
    2. Andrés Barrios-Fernández & Jorge García-Hombrados, 2025. "Recidivism and Neighborhood Institutions: Evidence from the Rise of the Evangelical Church in Chile," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(3), pages 725-762.
    3. Gonzalez, Robert & Jabri, Ranae & Komisarow, Sarah, 2025. "When does crime respond to punishment?: Evidence from drug-free school zones," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Federico Masera, 2022. "The economics of policing and crimeThe economics of policing and crime," Chapters, in: Paolo Buonanno & Paolo Vanin & Juan Vargas (ed.), A Modern Guide to the Economics of Crime, chapter 2, pages 12-29, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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    JEL classification:

    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets

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