Professor presents crime deterrence research

It’s easy to get desensitized by facts and figures.

So when representatives from Kansas City’s No Violence Alliance took the stage at the Attorney General’s Urban Crime Summit, they opened their presentation with something more personal.

It was a photo of a three-year-old girl named Damiah. Her smiling face – displayed on two large projection screens in the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Pierson Auditorium – seemed to light up the room.

But the crowd of politicians, law enforcement, media and community members grew quiet as Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jean Peters Baker told them Damiah’s story.

Damiah was murdered last month in her Kansas City home. The case is unsolved.

“For Damiah, it’s too late. We [KC NoVA] want to make an impact in people’s lives before there is another Damiah,” Peters Baker said.

That impact is being led by Kansas City’s No Violence Alliance. KC NoVA is a collaborative effort by key law enforcement, probation and parole, local and federal prosecutors, service providers, the faith-based community and city leaders to reduce violence in Kansas City’s urban core. UMKC is the research partner for KC NoVA.

UMKC Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology Andrew Fox was among the panelists who discussed KC NoVA’s strategies for deterring violent crime.

Fox creates social networks for KC NoVA’s Focus Deterrence project based on information he obtains from law enforcement. The relationship map he creates helps law enforcement see the social structure of violent groups.  Seeing that structure is key, Fox said.

“Who you know impacts what you do,” Fox said.

Of course, social network analysis is nothing new. In fact, it is often used in the medical community to identify the spread of disease. But here, Fox is using the model to identify Kansas City’s most violent groups.

KC NoVA uses that information to deter crime. In most cases, the alliance will offer the person the proper social services they’ll need to get out of violent crime.

In more severe cases, law enforcement will notify the entire social group that if one person in the group commits a crime, the rest of the group will be under scrutiny as well – either for parole violations, owed child support, or other violations.

Similar models have been successfully implemented in Boston, Chicago, and a number of other major cities. This model is still relatively new to Kansas City.

The four-day Attorney General’s Urban Crime Summit took place Sept. 16-17 at UMKC, and will take place Sept. 18-19 in St. Louis. Attorney General Chris Koster announced the Summit as a way to “explore meaningful responses to the high rate of urban crime facing metropolitan areas in Missouri.”

Both St. Louis and Kansas City consistently rank in the top 10 nationally for high levels of violent crime. The Attorney General’s Urban Crime Summit features national and regional experts on issues such as hot-spot policing, crime mapping, evidence-based policing, strategies to reduce gun violence, and the challenges facing felons reentering society.

Other speakers include St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, Kansas City Mayor Sly James, Chief Sam Dotson of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, and Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forté. County Executive Charlie Dooley and St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch will join the panel at the St. Louis meetings.