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The Link Between Recreation and Crime Prevention

Crime has now surpassed unemployment and economic troubles as the primary concern of most Americans.⁹ The reflexive response from political leaders is to promise more police on the streets and longer jail terms for offenders. But that approach is expensive and not necessarily effective. Violent crime in most cities has increased even after additional police officers have been hired.¹⁰

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Justice, in many cities half of the young men will be arrested for assault, robbery, burglary, or other serious crimes by the age of 17.¹¹ In major U.S. cities in 1992, police arrested 2.8 million people under the age of 21.¹² The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimates that the cost of keeping one teenager in detention for a year currently approaches $30,000.¹³ Nationwide, that added up to $2.3 billion for incarceration of juveniles in 1993-a 35% increase in spending on juvenile corrections in just five years.¹⁴ But more prisons and a threat of longer sentences do not necessarily deter young offenders. While California was spending $4 billion building new prisons, gang membership in Los Angeles doubled.¹⁵

Congressman Bruce Vento (D-Minn.) is among an increasing number of political leaders and community activists who insist that perhaps there is a better way to fight crime. "Urban recreation and sports programs are a proven, commonsense, and cost-effective means of preventing crime and delinquency," he says. "I wonder if our urban youth crime rate would be different if these programs had not been neglected in the past." Vento is co-sponsoring legislation to provide crime prevention funds for parks and recreation facilities because, he says, "without accessible and well-maintained places to recreate, there can be no recreation." ¹⁶

Although criminologists have found no way to measure directly how much crime is caused by a lack of open space and recreation opportunities, plenty of evidence shows that crime frequently drops-sometimes dramatically-when these things are improved. Yet investments in parks and open space have generally been considered a low priority. As cities continue to witness rising crime and urban distress, it is becoming increasingly clear that support for parks and recreation is not a luxury-it is an investment in our own security and health and the stability of our cities. For the same money that would put one new police officer on the street, says Mayor Sharpe James of Newark, New Jersey, the city could hire three recreation leaders who would have a much greater impact on keeping kids out of trouble and reducing crime. "The answer for those kids who are doing wrong should not be get off the street, go home, or go to jail," James says. "We should be able to tell them where to go and what to do.¹⁷

"We are going to recreate or we are going to incarcerate," adds James, who is also president of the National League of Cities. "The choice is ours. We cannot afford to put a cop on every corner and we can't build a jail cell for every youthful offender so why do we continue to believe that the answer is strictly in law enforcement?" ¹⁸