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Abstract: 

Criminologists have long found gang affiliation to be associated with a large proportion of the violence that is committed in the United States. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) implemented the Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) anti-gun initiative. Subsequently refocused on gangs, PSN incorporates a range of justice partners and strategies that address prevention, suppression, intervention, and reentry to effectively reduce crime.To provide guidance to the field of community corrections in its involvement in PSN, APPA developed the C.A.R.E. model composed of four key components: collaboration, analysis, reentry, and evaluation. Accompanying each component of the C.A.R.E. model are practical practice and policy guidelines. This model is designed to be applicable to a variety of local community street gang problems by providing an overarching framework for approaching local crime patterns. It builds on, and supports, the PSN anti-gun and anti-gang initiatives as well as the BJA’s scanning, analysis, response, assessment (SARA) model (BJA, 1998) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s (OJJDP) Comprehensive Gang Model (OJJDP, 2009a; 2009b). This paper describes the street gang phenomenon and its consequences for public safety as well as the nexus between gangs, guns, and drugs. It then discusses each component of C.A.R.E and offers recommendations for policy and practice.

Keywords: Project Safe Neighborhood; SARA model; CARE model

Affiliations:  1: American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) ; 2: APPA ; 3: APPA; 4: APPA.