Jeffrey Butts interviewed as Diverse City visits Port Richmond and neighboring West New Brighton on Staten Island to hear from former felons on how they’re working with law enforcement to address the growing levels of gun violence in their area.
JohnJayREC reviewed the evidence for policies and programs that reduce violence without relying on police.
Surveys of New York City public housing residents suggest that changes in some public safety outcomes might be mediated by gains in community well-being, social cohesion, engagement with government, and citizen trust in the competence of government agencies and actors. As communities become more tightly connected and more supported, they may experience gains in public safety.
“It’s where the story begins and where our attitudes begin in terms of how we perceive law enforcement,” said Jeffrey Butts, a research professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “If you’re pulled over all the time, and you think other people are behaving the same way you are, but they’re pulling you over, you immediately start thinking that police are biased, which means government is biased, which causes you to doubt the whole enterprise of democracy and government. So, it’s really serious.”
Brian Lehrer of WNYC asks Jeffrey Butts about the Trump administration’s “law and order” policies and rhetoric as they relate to the 2020 presidential election.
Trump isn’t the first national politician to poke at those anxieties. George Wallace, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton all raised fears of crime, said Jeffrey Butts, who directs the Research and Evaluation Center at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
