Some work John Worrall and I collaborated on was just published in Justice Quarterly, Evaluating Community Prosecution Code Enforcement in Dallas, Texas. I have two links to share:

• First 50 to visit can get a free print (so link will go bad in near future)
• This is the perpetual doi link, so should always be good

If you need access to the article always feel free to email.

Below is the abstract:

We evaluated a community prosecution program in Dallas, Texas. City attorneys, who in Dallas are the chief prosecutors for specified misdemeanors, were paired with code enforcement officers to improve property conditions in a number of proactive focus areas, or PFAs, throughout the city. We conducted a panel data analysis, focusing on the effects of PFA activity on crime in 19 PFAs over a six-year period (monthly observations from 2010 to 2015). Control areas with similar levels of pre-intervention crime were also included. Statistical analyses controlled for pre-existing crime trends, seasonality effects, and other law enforcement activities. With and without dosage data, the total crime rate decreased in PFA areas relative to control areas. City attorney/code enforcement teams, by seeking the voluntary or court-ordered abatement of code violations and criminal activity at residential and commercial properties, apparently improved public safety in targeted areas.

This was a neat program, as PFAs are near equivalents of hot spots that police focus on. So for the evaluation we drew control areas from Dallas PD’s Target Area Action Grid (TAAG) Areas: