Evolution of Violent Crime Reduction Strategies

Violent crime has long been a national concern for policymakers, criminal justice officials, and the American public. Violent crime increased during the 1960s through the early 1990s, and the United States particularly suffered from high levels of gun-related violent crime. The country experienced a welcome decline in violent crime for approximately three decades. Although the trends in violent crime, homicides, gun homicides, and nonfatal firearms incidents, are encouraging, violent crime remains a significant public policy challenge, and overall trends can mask some of the devastating consequences of violent crime, homicide, and gun violence. Indeed, one of the themes of this Element is that we need to learn lessons from this post-1990s period so that we can continue to reduce levels of homicide, firearms violence, and violent crime, particularly in those cities, neighborhoods, and street blocks, as well as demographic groups that continue to experience high levels of violent crime.