Lessons from murder reduction in Boston

The Boston Globe has an article, "What makes Boston so safe? Black pastors have different theories," updating the "Boston Miracle," because murders currently are below the five year average at this time the previous years.

The Boston Miracle ("Straight Outta Boston," Mother Jones, 2006) involves collaboration across nonprofits, churches, police and other government agencies, work with communities and on the street, to significantly cut the murder rate.  It's smaller in Boston than in cities like DC and Baltimore with comparable populations.

-- Policing in Boston webpage, Christopher Winship, Harvard
-- "How Boston became the safest big city in America," Economist
-- "Expanding the 'Boston Miracle,'" Boston Globe

Those collaborations haven't stopped as the murder rate dropped, they've continued--one such meeting has been held weekly for 30+ years.  No one has come up with the "one answer" on what has changed the trajectory.  One suggestion is of gentrification and displacement of potential shooters.  But that hasn't been as much of a factor in DC, which has a great deal of it.

Participants arrived for a weekly peace walk organized by the 10,000 Fearless Peacemakers. Photo: Taylor Coester for The Boston Globe.

The article starts out discussing Nation of Islam Preacher Randy Muhammad, and how his community has a weekly walk on Mondays through the community.  

They come upon a group of people hanging out at the T Station.  If it were DC, it could easily erupt into a public wilding event.  Here, Preacher Muhammad talks and interacts with the group.

From the article:

He’s wearing a bright orange T-shirt emblazoned with a quote from Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who attracted controversy in years past for antisemitic, homophobic, and misogynistic rhetoric. The quote itself is unobjectionable: “Making our communities safe & decent places to live.”

The idea behind events such as the peace walk is to build a rapport with community members, he said. That way, when it comes to disputes that could end in violence, his group can act as a neutral third party. “We offer an exit ramp,” said Muhammad. Oftentimes, he said, “we’re the only voice of deescalation.”

Not living in DC's poor neighborhoods anymore (H Street, 1980s-1990s), I don't know how much street presence there is of clergy and other committed community members.  

Community group involvement helps reduce crime.  Patrick Sharkey's book Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence credits the crime drop in part because of the rise of involvement of such organizations.  

I participated in one such group that was a response to the neighborhood center of crack dealing by Rayful Edmond's crew ("Rayful Edmond, Drug Lord Who Stoked D.C.’s Crack Cocaine Epidemic, Dies at 60," New York Times).  I also learned about how street design can help create protected areas conducive to drug dealing.

I know we had walks, I don't think we had weekly walks like Preacher Muhammad.  We did meet with the police precinct representatives every month at our meetings, among other government officials.  There was concern that people communicated some of what happened at the meetings to the drug dealers.

According to Crain's Chicago Business and their forum on the city's crime drop

Communities where nonprofits increased the most, such as those focusing on youth support and substance abuse programs, had lower crime rates. Community-based resources like this can also increase collective efficacy—social cohesion and trust among residents.

Also see "Nonprofit Crime Reduction," Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Our group and Preacher Muhammad's are congruent with "social efficacy theory" that posits more connected and involved communities, including the presence of a fair number of community organizations, have fewer social problems, despite income disparities. And Eric Klinenberg's discussion of the importance of social infrastructure in his book Palaces of the People.

Demographics are a factor.  The fact that Boston's murder rate is significantly lower compared to other cities means that they are doing something right, although part of it has to do with the rough percentage of black population in poverty.  For example, the black population in Boston is half that of DC, and one-third of Baltimore.  According to CNN:

The homicide rate for Black Chicagoans is nine times higher than for any other racial demographic, according to data released by the city Department of Public Health.

Differences in homicide rates by race account for significant differences in murder rates across cities.  E.g., Honolulu City and County with a population of one million--predominately Asian, and Asians having the lowest murder rate per capita--had 29 murders last year, which was a significant jump from 19 in 2024.

Summer always has a rise in crime and murder | Develop Summer Crime Suppression Strategies and Tactics.  Summer is known for an extranormal number of murders.  Focus resources on it.  That's the whole point of Broken Windows theory--focusing police time proactively not reactively, and addressing pattern crime ("Back from the Brink, an oral history of the introduction and implementation of Broken Windows theory policing in New York City").  Murders in the summer should be thought of as a pattern.

For example in Chicago 15 areas account for half the city's murders ("Chicago is throwing its ‘whole government’ at summer violence," CNN).  They focus resources on those "zones" with the most murders, bringing to bear all of the community's social infrastructure to address the problem.  DC knows where the murders are, I don't think they focus resources there.  Partly, because people in relatively safe areas still advocate for a high level of police presence.

Probably, there are more murders on weekends too, so that should be an area of focus.

Broken windows/physical improvements.  BW theory is two pronged.  One is refocusing police time and on crime suppression.  The other is investing in community--maintenance of public spaces like removing abandoned cars and in plantings, and working on keeping properties in good shape.  There have been studies in Philadelphia and elsewhere that find a positive reduction in crime in association with maintenance of vacant lots and conversion to community gardens.  Etc.

DC and Youth Crime.  Another area where DC seems to be an outlier is with youth crime, including violent crimes like murder, assault, and car jacking.  Having more community groups and preachers doing walks would be in order.

DC's youth crime and the failures of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services have been an issue for more than 30 years.  Truancy is an issue ("Empty desks: How the District’s failure to curb truancy in middle schools fueled the biggest youth crime surge in a generation," Washington Post).

After a significant decline in the program over the 2000s and 2010s, Midnight Basketball is back up to 20 chapters.  Photo: Clara Mokri for The New York Times.

Recreation centers and programs and later hours on weekends.   Curfews are one way cities deal with a rise in youth crime and group wilding in the summers ("Cities, towns nationwide revive teen curfews amid summer crowds," Indiana Capital Chronicle).  I think they can be one element in a toolbox.  But how about offering more programs for youth in the evening and at night.

Recreation centers and programs should be open later, until midnight or later on Friday and Saturday, and have a system of Teen Rangers to organize the programming so its relevant to the target audience ("Clark County to open 4 recreation centers for late-night teen programs," 3News Las Vegas).  From the article:

Four recreation centers across Clark County will begin offering free late-night programs for teenagers starting Tuesday as county officials and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police work to address rising concerns about youth violence and juvenile crime.

The summer initiative, which runs June 9- July 31, will keep Walnut Recreation Center, Whitney Recreation Center, Cambridge Recreation Center and the Torrey Pines Resource Center open from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. for teens ages 13 to 18.

I aver the centers should be open later than 11pm.  Libraries too.  In Montgomery County, Maryland, libraries in town centers like Silver Spring and Bethesda used to be open later on Friday and Saturday during the summers.  Not now.  But with focused involvement programming, such programs should be considered. 

Many of the recreation programs serve adults in their 20s as well,  ("Midnight Basketball Returns, and Brings Community With It," New York Times, National Midnight Basketball Association).

Summer Jobs and impact on crime.  The Wall Street Journal reports on a positive association between summer jobs and reduction in youth crime and murders ("The Effects of Summer Jobs on Youth Violence," "Why Teenagers Stopped Working in the Summer," Wall Street Journal).  From the article:

Sara Heller studied Chicago’s jobs program and found that an eight-week summer job cut violent-crime arrests among disadvantaged teenagers by 43%, with the effect growing after the job ended. Mr. Gelber and his co-authors, studying New York’s program, matched roughly 290,000 lottery records to tax and death records and found that winning a summer job cut the risk of dying over the following years by about 18%, driven by fewer homicides, particularly among young men. Those same New York jobs, however, didn’t raise the kids’ later earnings; if anything they nudged them down slightly and left college-going untouched.

How about Co-operative High School?  Given the results from summer employment, I've suggested offering the option of co-operative high school, where after freshman year youth are placed in paying jobs alongside classroom learning.  Such programs are uncommon.  

High Companies, a multifaceted firm with a foundation in welding and manufacturing supports three schools--two in Pennsylvania and one in Denver ("How Co-ops Help Young People Start Their Careers," High Companies).  Orillia Secondary School in Ontario also.St. George's Technical High School in Delaware.  And probably others.

Seniors only.  Charlevoix-Emmet Intermediate School District in Michigan offers co-op placements for senior, at more than 125 businesses, institutions, and nonprofits. Hodgson Vo-Tech in Delaware also only offers placements for seniors.

I do think as a crime reduction strategy, students from sophomore age schould be eligible for cooperative education.