The Negative Impact of Rising Crime Rates on Economic Development
I. Introduction
Crime is increasing. The causes of the rise are disputed. Some claim that the cause is the defund the police movement. Others point to the COVID-19 shutdown. Others, including the district attorney in Harris County blame bad bail reforms as the cause of increasing crime.
One of the unforseen affects of this rising crime is its impact on opportunities for economic development. Currently, Texas is the beneficiary of businesses moving out of high crime areas. But there are parts of Texas such as Harris County which have imposed criminal justice reforms which have caused significant rising crime. Therefore, it is important to highlight how rising crime impacts Economic Development.
II. Developers and Business Owners Typically do not Invest in High Crime Areas
An increase in violent crime immediately makes an area less desirable for economic investment. A business is not willing to make the investiment to build a new infrastructure, hire numerous employees and send them to work where they are not safe. This dynamic has very long-lasting ramifications. For example, the Greens Point area in north Houston was originally developed as a thriving retail hub. Within a few years of development, crime took over and decades later the area has still not recovered. When an area gets a reputation for high crime, it generally sticks. It is hard to remove thereafter.
Additionally, today's discussion of criminal justice reform seeks to separate violent crime and property crime claiming that a different response should apply to each. But an increase in property crimes impedes the ability to attract new economic development and places pressures on existing business to survive. Once crime invades an area, the numbers of businesses will contract. This will cause cities, counties and state governments to raise taxes to allow them to receive the same revenue that they received the year before. This will then pressure other businesses to close. This can cause a death spiral for a community. California is a good example, Target and other retail businesses in California have begun closing stores because they cannot sustain the losses generated by prosecutors announcing that they would no longer prosecute theft crimes under $950 value. Target reported at least a $25,000 per day loss due to this new policy. This is unsustainable for a business. Consequenly, businesses are beginning to relocate out of California and in high crime areas retail businesses are closing.
Additionally, property values diminish in high crime rate areas. Rising crime affects every property owner, as well as, any governmental entity that depends on property taxes to provide services to the community. As a result, property taxes must be raised to sustain services. Several elected officials in Texas have been quoted as saying that we should put people in jail that we are scared up and not people we are mad at. However, criminals have heard these same comments and they have decided to take our politicians at their word and the career criminals and the gangs and organized crime elements want to see how angry they can make politicians before they change course and seek to hold the criminals accountable.
III. The Criminal has Become the New Victim
The district attorneys' office in Los Angeles was asked last year about the victims of crimes. The district attorneys' office gave a very troubling response stating that the office just had a disagreement about who the real victim was. They argued that the victim was the defendant who had been let down by society and the victim was not the person filing the criminal charge. This is troubling. If the district attorney is not arguing for the victim who filed the criminal charge then no one is in the courtroom arguing on their behalf. Also, it is almost like society is giving up on accountability. Accountability for one’s actions is the cornerstone of an effective criminal justice system. The shift to decriminalize many lower-level offences has created an increase in crime, most notably, an increase in gang activity. Criminals are no longer afraid of what will happen to them, if caught. As a result, there is much more organized criminal activity because they are willing to step into the void left by fewer police.
Many of the taxpayer funded programs being implemented are focused on the ease in which the criminal can make his/her way through the system. The emphasis has shifted away from providing justice to the victim of the crime. This is disenfranchising to law enforcement because their efforts are being undermined and leaves victims without any recourse for recovery. These factors indirectly inhibit economic growth.
IV. Safe Communities Discourage Crime
One of the cournerstones of safe communities is that they discourage crime. Providing the appropriate level of punishment to discourage future crime is prudent. It acts as a deterrent to new crime and it is. The broken windows model of policing was first described in 1982 in an article by Wilson and Kelling. Briefly, the model argues that policing should focus on the disorder (e.g., broken windows) as a cause in generating and sustaining more serious crime. The theory argues that disorder is not directly linked to serious crime; instead, disorder leads to increased fear and withdrawal from residents, which then allows more serious crime to move in because of decreased levels of informal social control.
The police can play a key role in disrupting increasing crime. If they focus in on disorder and less serious crime in neighborhoods that have not yet been overtaken by serious crime, they can help reduce fear and resident withdrawal. Promoting higher levels of informal social control will help residents themselves take control of their neighborhood and prevent serious crime from infiltrating.
Additionally, jails should focus on their purpose of housing criminals and attempting to rehabilite them. Today's society asks too much of jails. Mental health is one of those areas where we ask too much. There is a need to address alternatives to incarceration for mental health issues that ensure public safety. Jails should not be used as mental health wards.
Using the most successful and proven release mechanism to ensure a defendant’s appearance in court prevents the wasting of economic resources from growing backlogs and guards against the need for additional courts. Without fail, the private industry has proven to be that option. Worth noting, Harris County has spent over $100M creating a new criminal friendly justice system that is failing miserably, as documented in a recent Houston Police Officer Union report. To see report CLICK HERE.
Releasing defendants on less effective mechanisms for release increase court backlogs. Personal recognizance bonds (PR Bonds) have become in effect, a criminal welfare system. In Harris County, the misdemeanor courts are not forfeiting or revoking a defendant’s PR bond for failing to appear in court. This failure on the part of the courst has become the new normal. Instead of issuing a warrant for a defendant’s arrest when they fail to appear, the courts are appointed an attorney and the case is re-set. This goes on for months, missed appearance after missed appearance, until the case is dismissed because the State can no longer make a case due to loss of evidence or witnesses. In 2021, 72% of the misdemeanor cases disposed in Harris County were dismissed. In 2020, it was also 72% of the criminal cases disposed were dismissed. Ten years ago this number was 25%. Criminal see this for what it is; a green light to commit more crime.
V. The Real Cost of Rising Crime
A report from 2012 estimated an annual cost for rising crime. The report is linked below. To calculate the cost, the report analyzed a broad range of direct costs associated with violent crime in eight cities. These direct costs start with local spending on policing, prosecuting, and incarcerating the perpetrators of those crimes. These costs also encompass out-of-pocket medical expenses borne by surviving victims of violent crime as well as the income those victims must forgo as a result of the crimes. These costs also include the lost incomes that would otherwise be earned by the perpetrators of violent crimes had they not been apprehended—as distasteful as it is to calculate the foregone income of rapists or armed robbers who are arrested, convicted, and incarcerated. These direct, annual costs range from $90 million per year in Seattle to around $200 million per year in Boston, Jacksonville, and Milwaukee, to more than $700 million in Philadelphia and nearly $1.1 billion for Chicago. This report is dated in 2012. As crime as increased substantially in recent years, the costs of violent crime has also increased as well.
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