Community-Based Crime Reduction in Tulsa: An Application of Petersilia’s Multi-Stakeholder Collaborative Approach to Improve Policy Relevance and Reduce Crime Risk

Abstract

The most fitting way to celebrate Joan Petersilia’s numerous advancements within the field of criminal justice is to deliberately practice the two most important lessons that perhaps best define her legacy. First, embedded research should drive collaborative partnerships to foster real-world change based on science. Second, such real-world change should reduce the consequences of crime as well as the social costs of heavy-handed criminal justice sanctions within distressed communities to transform criminal justice policy and practice. In this paper, we outline future directions for policing practice and research as a result of the embedded, collaborative partnerships that led to the Tulsa Community-Based Crime Reduction (CBCR) initiative. The Tulsa CBCR initiative and subsequent evaluation shows that police-driven, collaborative stakeholder partnerships (including business owners, resident steering committees, local government, police, and researchers) significantly reduced crime within targeted areas, allayed many citizens’ perceptions of risk, and improved residents’ attitudes about the Tulsa Police Department.