Crime on the subways: Measuring the effectiveness of the guardian angels

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Abstract
For the past several decades, criminal justice practitioners and observers have begun to suggest that our crime problems cannot be solved without increased levels of citizen involvement. Advocates of this philosophy were especially fueled by research throughout the 1970s—such as that conducted in Kansas City on patrol and by the Rand Corporation on detectives—which showed that the police were largely unable to deter and prevent crime and that citizens, far more than police, solved crimes. In response, many communities have begun to actively promote methods aimed at increasing citizen participation in law enforcement. In other communities, many private groups have organized on their own initiative to become actively involved in crime prevention and fighting. Despite the rapid proliferation of these citizen action organizations, few efforts have been made to determine their effectiveness in reducing either crime or its related fear. Since this question is so central to decisions concerning the role these organizations might properly play in our law enforcement process, and since many of the more active organizations pose additional questions concerning group control and the protection of the rights of individuals with whom they come into contact, it is important to conduct such evaluations. This study is an effort to measure the potential for effectiveness of such citizen groups.

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