Public Safety Assessment

 

PUBLIC SAFETY, CRIME PREVENTION AND VICTIMIZATION OVERVIEW

Crime in Travis County has consistently decreased in the last several years. This pattern is present for all types of crimes, even violent. Despite this improvement, spending on incarceration and the justice system is on the rise. While prevention and intervention are more successful and cost-effective methods for addressing criminal behavior than is incarceration, emphasis continues to be put on being "tough on crime", with little emphasis on addressing root causes of criminal behavior and long-term impacts on victims.
VISION: "Travis County will be
a community where all persons
will be safe from crime and victimization."

Community Action Network

KEY FINDINGS

Positive Trends

  • Both adult and juvenile crime are decreasing.
  • Austin schools are safer now than four years ago.
  • The Travis County adult crime-prone population (ages 17 to 44) is expected to remain stable over the next five years.
  • Research has helped identify what puts an individual at risk of committing crimes.
  • Prevention and early intervention are more successful and cost-effective means to address crime than is incarceration.
"Today's Austin resident is less likely to be robbed, harmed or killed than at any other time in 20 years."

Austin American-Statesman
(Spencer, April 17, 1999)

Negative Trends

  • Incarceration rates and spending in the justice system continue to increase.
  • In addition to spending on the justice system, criminal behavior imposes other costs on the community, including costs to victims and lost productivity costs due to incarceration.
The total costs imposed by a life of crime
by one individual are estimated at
$1.3 to $1.5 million.

Snyder & Sickmund,
September 1999
  • Crime is more concentrated in some areas of Travis County. In 1999, over one in five juvenile referrals were for youth who lived in the 78744 or 78745 zip codes.
  • Most juvenile crime occurs in the hours directly after school. The juvenile violence rate in the after-school hours is four times the rate during the curfew period (even prior to the introduction of the curfew law).
  • The relatively small, juvenile crime-prone population (ages 10-16) is expected to grow by 19% in the next five years.
  • The elderly prison population has grown faster than any other population of inmates. This increase may cause the health care costs of inmates to increase substantially.
  • The percentage of females committing crimes is increasing. Women have greater health and mental health needs while incarcerated, and about two-thirds of female inmates have children under 18 waiting for them at home.

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EXPENDITURES

  • Expenditures by Community Action Network partners with public safety programs totaled more than $237 million in FY 2000. These funds purchase a range of public safety services, including juvenile and adult correctional institutions, courts, police, and programs for offenders. This figure does not include a large percentage of the prevention programs that are also in place.
  • In addition, other local and state agencies spend millions of dollars on public safety for Travis County, totaling over $96 million.
  • To put these expenditures in perspective, in Travis County, approximately five times more is spent on public safety than is spent on housing, early education and care, and basic needs combined ($40 million, $14 million, and $7 million, respectively).

RISK FACTORS OF CRIME

For prevention efforts to be successful, communities must target factors that lead to crime. Research has shown a consistent set of factors that predict the likelihood that individuals will commit crimes:

Table A.
Risk Factors for Crime

RISK FACTOR

DESCRIPTION

Individual

Prior delinquency, academic attitude & performance, substance use, psychological condition, social ties

Family

Household type, parent-child relationship, parent characteristics, family stress

Societal

Socioeconomic status, community disorder, community cohesiveness

Source: Loeber & Farrington, 1998

The number of risk factors to which an individual is exposed influences the probability that (s)he will engage in criminal behavior. As Figure A shows, the risk of offending is greatest among individuals with multiple risk factors.

Figure A.
Percent of Youth Likely to Commit Serious Offense By Number of Risk Factors

Source: Loeber & Farrington, 1998

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SYSTEM BARRIERS

Across the system, several barriers have been identified that prevent crime from being further reduced.

Prevention "System"

  • Currently, a fragmented and limited system of services exists for troubled youth, especially those below age 10.
  • Services are not always directed to those most in need.
  • Risk factors for crime are not always addressed holistically.
  • Services are not always provided for a long enough duration to have lasting impacts.
  • More resources are invested in incarceration than in prevention and early intervention.

The prevention system could be improved by:

  • Directing services to those most in need
  • Treating holistically
  • Providing a long duration of services

Justice System

Offenders

  • Once individuals enter the justice system, programming to address their educational, vocational, substance use, and mental health needs is sometimes limited.
  • In addition to the lack of programming for offenders while incarcerated, there is a general lack of services for adult offenders released into the community from incarceration. Adult releasees are especially in need of employment and housing assistance.

The following types of programming are needed for offenders:

  • Educational
  • Vocational
  • Substance abuse treatment
  • Mental health services

Victims

  • The child welfare system, which treats children who are victims of abuse or neglect, is experiencing a lack of resources, which has resulted in overburdened, under-paid, and under-trained child caseworkers.
  • There exists a generally inaccessible and fragmented victim services system within the justice system for victims of all ages.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The preliminary planning recommendations listed below are based upon literature, data for Austin/Travis County, focus groups, and input from community members. These recommendations attempt to address the needs of offenders, victims, and the community to improve public safety in Austin/Travis County.

Preliminary Recommendations:

  • Create a Balance between Funding for Incarceration and Funding for Prevention/Intervention. Change focus from reacting to criminal behavior to an approach that addresses root causes of criminal behavior. Publicly and fiscally recognize that, in the long run, prevention and intervention cost less and are more successful than incarceration.

  • Improve the Delivery of Prevention Services. Develop and implement a comprehensive prevention method that directs services to youth at risk of offending and their families and that holistically and for an effective duration addresses known risk factors for crime.

  • Provide Positive Activities for Youth during the After-School Hours. Provide positive activities for youth during the hours when most juvenile crime occurs.

  • Improve Services for Victims of Child Abuse & Neglect. Increase resources to reduce caseloads, increase salaries, and improve training of child welfare workers, so that victims of child abuse and neglect and their families are better served.

  • Improve the Service System for all Victims. Develop and implement a more accessible, less fragmented system of services for all victims of crime, so as to break the cycle of violence. Studies show that youth who are victimized and those who witness violence are at a higher risk of engaging in criminal behavior.

  • Better Prepare Incarcerated Adults for Release into the Community. Implement a comprehensive continuum of services for incarcerated adult offenders to prepare them for release into the community. Continue providing services for adults released from incarceration, to help them move towards self-sufficiency and reduce the high rates of recidivism.

  • Improve Data Availability and Quality. Improve access to and quality of data relating to public safety, so that the community can make more informed planning decisions.

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