Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence

by Patrick Sharkey

Overview

“Admirably connects two stories about the criminal legal system that are usually told separately. One is that the country that Americans live in is safer than it has been for a long time. The other story is that for some citizens, especially African-American men, the country that they live in is not free.” —Paul Butler, New York Times Book Review

From the late ’90s to the mid-2010s, American cities experienced an astonishing drop in violent crime, dramatically changing urban life. In many cases, places once characterized by decay and abandonment are now thriving, the fear of death by gunshot wound replaced by concern about skyrocketing rents.

In Uneasy Peace, Patrick Sharkey, “the leading young scholar of urban crime and concentrated poverty” (Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban Crisis) reveals the striking effects: improved school test scores, because children are better able to learn when not traumatized by nearby violence; better chances that poor children will rise into the middle class; and a marked increase in the life expectancy of African American men.

Some of the forces that brought about safer streets—such as the intensive efforts made by local organizations to confront violence in their own communities—have been positive, Sharkey explains. But the drop in violent crime has also come at the high cost of aggressive policing and mass incarceration. From Harlem to South Los Angeles, Sharkey draws on original data and textured accounts of neighborhoods across the country to document the most successful proven strategies for combating violent crime and to lay out innovative and necessary approaches to the problem of violence. At a time when crime is rising again, the issue of police brutality has taken center stage, and powerful political forces seek to disinvest in cities, the insights in this book are indispensable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393356540
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/05/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	743,541
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Patrick Sharkey is professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University. He is also scientific director of Crime Lab New York, an independent organization dedicated to applying and evaluating new methods for addressing crime, violence, and poverty.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Preface xi

Part I The New American City

1 The End Of The Era Of Violence 3

2 The New American City 14

3 The Transformation Of Urban Space 39

Part II The Benefits Of The Crime Decline

4 The Preservation Of Black Lives 63

5 Learning In Fear 76

6 Inequality After The Crime Decline 96

Part III The Challenge Of Violence And Urban Inequality

7 Abandonment, Punishment, And The New Compromise 115

8 The End Of Warrior Policing 146

9 The Next Urban Guardians 162

10 A War On Violence 180

Notes 187

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

"Fascinating and provocative."

|Los Angeles Times

"Insightful and engaging.… An excellent introduction to America’s up-and-down urban-violence roller-coaster ride."

Wall Street Journal - Edward Glaeser

"Admirably connects two stories about the criminal legal system that are usually told separately. One is that the country that Americans live in is safer than it has been for a long time. The other story is that for some citizens, especially African-American men, the country that they live in is not free."

Paul Butler

"A well-documented, thoughtful look at major American cities and their comeback from deserted ghost towns to thriving urban centers. . . .  This engaging, readable offering should attract interest from city planners, law enforcement, urban dwellers, and anyone concerned about our cities."

Booklist (starred)

"While many Americans believe crime is on the rise, cities are safer today than at any other point in recorded history. But why? The great crime decline has remained a mystery—until now. With deep knowledge and lucid prose, Uneasy Peace uncovers the multiple forces that brought about this sweeping transformation in modern urban life, forces that were not without their costs. This book profoundly changed how I think about crime, violence, and justice in America."

Matthew Desmond

"Patrick Sharkey, the leading young scholar of urban crime and concentrated poverty, brilliantly dissects the causes of the great urban crime decline that has brought our great cities back to life, and outlines what it will take to ensure that our cities remain safe, secure, better, and more equitable places for all. Uneasy Peace is a must-read for mayors, city-builders, urbanists, and all those concerned with building and living in great urban places."

Richard Florida

"Remarkable. . . .  The story of the crime decline is about the wisdom of single steps and small sanities. . . . It is possible to see this as a kind of humanist miracle, a lesson about the self-organizing and, sometimes, self-healing capacities of human communities that’s as humbling, in its way, as any mystery that faith can offer."

New Yorker - Adam Gopnik

"Patrick Sharkey’s achievement in Uneasy Peace is to explain with accessible precision just how much the massive decline in homicide since the 1990s has mattered to the most vulnerable of city-dwellers, African American men. Sharkey also makes clear why this public health triumph is precarious due to our unrelenting focus on criminal justice to the exclusion of community investments. Any student of cities will regard this book as essential reading."

Tracey L. Meares

"Uneasy Peace has enhanced my understanding of the decline in urban violent crime. Compelling too is Sharkey’s discussion of ways to avert a possible new wave of national violence. This well-written and carefully researched book is a must-read for anyone residing in our nation’s cities."

William Julius Wilson

★ 2017-10-02
A sociologist's account of the "stunning" decline in urban American violence in the past two decades.In a nuanced work based on three years of research on the ways in which dwindling crime has "altered" city life—mainly for the better—Sharkey (Chair, Sociology/New York Univ.; Stuck in Place: Urban Neighborhoods and the End of Progress Toward Racial Equality, 2013) provides significant new data showing how, since the 1990s, cities have come back to life. Families returned from the suburbs. Poor neighborhoods attracted newcomers. Schools became safer. Fewer homicides sparked "an improvement in the life expectancy of black men that rivals any public health breakthrough of the last several decades." Indeed, "2014 was the safest on record in New York, and one of the safest in U.S. history," he writes. Quick to note that most Americans don't believe these trends (largely due to crime-heavy local news reporting and outright misleading news), Sharkey shows how an era of intensive policing, punitive criminal justice policies, aggressive prosecution of offenders, unprecedented incarceration, and uncommon mobilization of community residents has produced these remarkable changes. He examines how neighborhood organizations have emerged as "guardians" of urban spaces, the roles of private security and surveillance, and the many benefits of safer streets, especially for the disadvantaged. There are excellent sections on how children are affected by inequality and violence, the changing nature of life in gentrified Harlem and Washington, D.C.'s Shaw neighborhood, and the role of videos in unleashing "intense, visceral anger" in poor communities over clashes with police. With signs that violent crime has risen in the last few years, the author argues that sustained investment in stronger neighborhoods (preparing them for the coming return of incarcerated residents), with more community-minded police and other advocates, must occur under concerted action by the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.A rich, complex book that makes splendid use of data to trace the recent renaissance of city neighborhoods and how children and the poor flourish in a time of relative peace.

Kirkus Reviews