Washington, D.C. — Everyone deserves to be safe where they live, regardless of race, wealth, health, ability, or background. Keeping people safe from crime and violence is one of the most important responsibilities of government and community leaders. It is also essential to creating thriving, healthy, and durable communities. While many categories of crime are now on the decline, concerns over crime and public safety remain a top issue for many Americans, and constituents are looking to their elected leaders for timely and responsive solutions that yield results. A new Center for American Progress report provides a policy framework that improves public safety through better accountability for people who commit crimes while highlighting both immediate and long-term solutions to prevent crime before it happens.
This framework proceeds in two parts. The first outlines ways to make accountability solutions more effective and targeted by:
- Improving responses to serious crime: Only 1 in 5 nonfatal shootings result in arrests in the United States. Given that most crimes go unreported, it is estimated only 11 percent of serious crimes result in arrest and only 2 percent lead to a criminal conviction. The criminal legal system can make strides to address this concern by significantly improving the rate at which crimes are solved, tailoring solutions to community needs through improved data collection and sharing, and improving police-community relations.
- Ensuring accountability systems break cycles of crime: Programs that divert people from contact with the criminal legal system and eliminate barriers to reentry, often while providing treatment, including for mental health trauma and substance abuse, can address the underlying drivers of crime and be very effective at stopping cycles of offending.
- Prioritizing support for crime survivors and victims: 96 percent of violent crime victims also never receive financial compensation or assistance to aid with recovery. Victim compensation funds and support services for crime survivors should be available, and they should be comprehensive, culturally relevant, and trauma informed.
The second part calls for investing in proven crime prevention strategies by:
- Reducing the harms caused by guns: Policymakers should adopt legislation such as extreme risk protection order laws, safe storage laws, and permit-to-purchase laws while repealing gun industry immunity laws.
- Expanding the public safety workforce: Expanding the public safety workforce to include a wider range of professionals, including those specializing in crisis response, conflict resolution, and behavioral health, can improve immediate and long-term safety outcomes.
- Increasing services and resources for underserved communities: Federal, state, and local leaders should invest in expanding access to both public health programs, such as substance abuse treatment and mental health counseling, and housing resources; increasing economic opportunities in disinvested communities; and protecting and empowering young people.
“Better public safety requires a commitment to more effective accountability that avoids the harms of the past while directing prevention resources and support to systemically neglected communities that suffer most from crime,” said Lindsey McLendon, senior fellow for Criminal Justice Reform at CAP. “Without faithful, transparent implementation of both approaches, true safety will remain elusive and inequitable.”
Read the report: “Improving Public Safety Through Better Accountability and Prevention” by Lindsey McLendon, Rachael Eisenberg, and Nick Wilson
Read the fact sheet: “Executive Summary: Improving Public Safety Through Better Accountability and Prevention” by Lindsey McLendon, Rachael Eisenberg, and Nick Wilson
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Jasmine Razeghi at [email protected].