Chicago crime heading down overall but plagues some neighborhoods

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | December 14, 2013 | Frank Main

[Cincinatus' Wife]

".....Still, some Chicago communities — such as West Garfield Park on the West Side — continue to suffer from extremely high rates of violence, [Professor Andrew] Papachristos noted.

“There is a lot of work to be done,” he said in an interview. “The work to be done is how to deal with the inequality in the crime rates.”

The violent crime rate for West Garfield Park in 2011 was more than 3,000 crimes per 100,000 people, more than any community in Chicago other than Fuller Park on the South Side. Papachristos’ research showed West Garfield Park was more murderous in the 2000s than in the 1970s.....

...“Taken together, such community level trends show that nearly all communities in Chicago experienced a decline in murder and overall crime over the past several decades,” Papachristos wrote. “At the same time, however, crime remains persistently in particular communities, especially in socially and economically disadvantaged parts of the city.”

[Evelyn] Diaz [commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services] said her department is attacking crime by “reaching out to young people before their first arrest.” For example, about 1,000 black males ages 14 to 16 were hired this year through the city’s One Summer Plus program. The University of Chicago Crime Lab found the program helped reduce arrests for violent crimes among the youths by 51 percent by providing them with jobs, therapy and mentoring in 2012.

The police, meanwhile, have launched new crime-fighting strategies, including “impact zones” in 20 high-crime areas where off-duty officers and rookie cops have been conducting foot patrols. This year, the city is expected to spend about $93 million on overtime for police officers, including those working off-duty in the impact zones.......

[jobim]

I grew up in Oak Park and commuted to St. Ignatius. Austin and Garfield Park haven’t changed an iota since the 60s. My dad had his contractor building on Madison near Kostner. Nothing has changed. Family disintegration on display these 50 years.