Defund the Police?

Abstract

Abstract In 2020 homicide rates rose by 30%, the single highest increase in homicide in the past six decades. At the same time, racial justice protests spawned a new movement calling to “defund the police.” There are no systematic studies of the impact of the “defund the police” movement on the rise in serious urban violence. However, research supports the position that homicide increases when police departments withdraw from proactive crime control activities, and that when a small population of very risky individuals is not appropriately managed by the police and their partners, rapid and steep increases in fatal and non-fatal shootings can result as cycles of retaliatory violence spin out of control. Small decreases in the policing of high-risk offending groups may quickly lead to shooting surges. This chapter considers how the current climate could undermine focused deterrence, an evidence-based gang violence reduction strategy, and produce unintended harms to disadvantaged neighborhoods suffering the brunt of the recent increase in gun violence.