Criminal legal reformers are increasingly adopting a more holistic conception of safety, one where the goals of reducing crime, violence, and recidivism are necessary but not sufficient. This means extending the parameters of public safety investment beyond the traditional boundaries of the criminal legal system.
Yet across the country, governments continue to focus on shoring up responses to crime, rather than minimizing the need for these responses in the first place.
Community safety is part of community justice.
Highlighting recent research and encouraging innovations taking place across the country—Los Angeles, most notably—this policy brief makes the case for broadening the gaze of governments to include preventative intervention as a credible and effective use of public safety dollars.
From the moment people encounter the criminal legal system, the opportunities for meaningful intervention narrow. In pursuit of lasting impact, reformers—and their counterparts in government and philanthropy—must swim upstream toward the waters of community-led innovation.
