Author pages are created from data sourced from our academic publisher partnerships and public sources.
- Publications
- Influence
Problem-oriented policing in violent crime places: A randomized controlled experiment
- A. Braga, D. Weisburd, E. Waring, L. Mazerolle, W. Spelman, Francis Gajewski
- Sociology
- 1 August 1999
Over the past decade, problem-oriented policing has become a central strategy for policing. In a number of studies, problem-oriented policing has been found to be effective in reducing crime and… Expand
Abandoned buildings: Magnets for crime?
- W. Spelman
- Engineering
- 1993
Abstract In economically distressed neighborhoods, abandoned houses and apartments can become hangouts for thieves, drug dealers, and prostitutes. In one low-income Austin, Texas neighborhood, 41… Expand
The Severity of Intermediate Sanctions
- W. Spelman
- Psychology
- 1 May 1995
In the state of Texas, 128 recently convicted offenders used a modified magnitude estimation procedure to rate the severity of 26 felony punishments, ranging from 6 months regular probation through a… Expand
What Recent Studies Do (and Don't) Tell Us about Imprisonment and Crime
- W. Spelman
- Psychology
- Crime and Justice
- 1 January 2000
Despite three decades of study and a nationwide quasi experiment of unprecedented scale, it is still uncertain how large an effect prisons have on the crime rate. Researchers have learned some things… Expand
The Limited Importance of Prison Expansion
- W. Spelman
- Political Science
- 2005
Introduction over the past twenty years , the fifty American states have engaged in one of the great policy experiments of modern times. In an attempt to reduce intolerably high levels of reported… Expand
Crime, cash, and limited options: Explaining the prison boom*
- W. Spelman
- Economics
- 1 February 2009
Research Summary
An analysis of a state panel of prison populations from 1977 to 2005 shows that the best predictors of prison populations are crime, sentencing policy, prison crowding, and… Expand
Who Ya Gonna Call? The Police as Problem-Busters
- J. Eck, W. Spelman
- Psychology
- 1 January 1987
Current police practice is dominated by two, competing strategies—“community policing” and “crime control policing.” Both are limited: they each apply a standard set of police tactics to a wide… Expand
Specifying the Relationship Between Crime and Prisons
- W. Spelman
- Economics
- 29 February 2008
There is no scholarly consensus as to the proper functional form of the crime equation, particularly with regard to one critical, explanatory variable—prison population. The critical questions are… Expand
Calling the police : citizen reporting of serious crime
- W. Spelman, D. K. Brown
- Political Science
- 1984
Jobs or jails? The crime drop in Texas
- W. Spelman
- Economics
- 1 December 2005
Crime went down throughout the U.S. in the 1990s. Potential explanations include demographic shifts, improved economic opportunities, changes in drug markets, evolving police strategies, and an… Expand