Robert Apel

Rutgers University Website

Robert Apel is Professor of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland.

Voting History

Reducing gun violence

Taking into account both potential implementation challenges and expected efficacy, investing in police-led targeted enforcement directed at places and persons at high risk for gun crime (e.g.,\"hot spot\" policing; gang enforcement) would reduce gun violence.

Vote Confidence
Disagree 3
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 7
Comments

Generally speaking, there is a lot of experimental evidence about hot spots interventions, although it is worth pointing out the overall effect sizes are pretty small and the interventions are highly variable--so variable, in my view, we cannot say with certainty what police should actually *do* in hot spots aside from increasing visible presence. Evaluations devoted specifically to gun violence are few and non-experimental (ergo, endogenous sample selection and endogenous treatment effects), an

Taking into account both potential implementation challenges and expected efficacy, investing in police-led focused deterrence programs (clearly communicating “carrots and sticks” to local residents identified as high risk, followed by targeted surveillance and enforcement with some community-based support for those who desist from crime) would reduce gun violence.

Vote Confidence
Disagree 3
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 6
Comments

Evaluation is immensely difficult because of explicit sampling on risk, violation of the non-interference assumption of SUTVA when the intervention target is groups, and the question of the appropriate unit of analysis for measuring outcomes. There is not yet any experimental evidence, as far as I am aware. The quasi-experimental evidence suggests effectiveness on violence especially when the target is gangs as opposed to individuals, but while promising, this must await more carefully designed

Taking into account both potential implementation challenges and expected efficacy, investing in purely community-led violence-interruption programs (community-based outreach workers try to mediate and prevent conflict, without police involvement) would reduce gun violence.

Vote Confidence
Agree 5
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 5
Comments

Evaluations of violence interruption programs face similar challenges as focused deterrence, and the quality of evidence is comparably unexceptional but promising. But unlike police-led interventions, I would predict a number of positive spillovers stemming from the direct investment in local organizations (which is linked with lower violent crime rates, as strong quasi-experimental evidence indicates), employment of justice-impacted individuals as interrupters (who would otherwise face employme