History of Community Prosecution Key Dimensions Future of the Community Prosecution Movement: Evaluating What Works Using the Key Dimensions To Organize Evaluation Questions Notes References About the Authors Acknowledgments Bulletin Home Publications Web Sites

History of Community Prosecution

The immediate origins of the community prosecution movement are often traced to the pioneering efforts of Multnomah County District Attorney (DA) Michael Schrunk, who established the Neighborhood DA Unit in Portland, Oregon, in 1990 in response to business leaders’ concerns that quality-of-life crimes would impede development of a central business district.¹ In 1991, community-oriented prosecution initiatives in Kings County, New York, under District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and in Montgomery County, Maryland, under State’s Attorney Andrew Sonner involved reorganization of the prosecutors’ offices along geographic lines and efforts to form new working relationships with their communities.

After the early 1990s, community prosecution spread rapidly to other jurisdictions. Estimates of how many prosecutors’ offices in the United States have adopted community prosecution strategies vary. The American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI) recently estimated, based on a national survey of prosecutors’ offices, that by the end of 2000 nearly half of all prosecutors’ offices may have been engaged in activities that would qualify as community prosecution.² In 1999, 33 sites received targeted federal funding to support community prosecution strategies; in 2000, 62 sites received grants to plan or implement new programs, or to expand or enhance existing programs; and in late 2001, 75 additional sites received funding to plan, implement, or enhance community prosecution programs.

Nine sites received leadership awards in 2001. These nine sites will serve as learning laboratories for other communities looking to implement similar strategies. Table 1 lists 38 community prosecution initiatives in operation at the end of 2000.

Table 1. Chronology of Community Prosecution Initiatives