Project Safe Neighborhood

Project Safe Neighborhood is an inter-disciplinary project between the Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing (Kno.e.sis) and the Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) at Wright State University with other partners including Dayton Police Department, Montgomery County Juvenile Court University of Dayton to Prevent Juvenile Repeat Offenders in Westwood neighborhood of City of Dayton, Ohio.

People

Principal Investigators: Jack L. Dustin
Co-Investigators: Amit P. Sheth
Graduate Students: Sanjaya Wijeratne

Overview

The Dayton Police Department and the Montgomery Country Juvenile Probation have determined that the Westwood area required significant personnel and resources to address crime and violence. For example, in 2013, 249 juveniles from the Westwood neighborhood between the ages of 12-14, committed Aggravated Arson, Aggravated Robbery and Felonious Assault. Further, 13% of the juveniles on probation in Montgomery County reside in Westwood. Reducing crime and recidivism will require the help and collaboration of the community and the youth service agencies including schools (both public and private). The goals of the project includes:

1. Research and develop the criteria for identifying the most at risk youth
2. Establish the best practices for bringing all resources to common focus for these youth
3. Increase the use of law enforcement home visits in the targeted neighborhood
4. Enhance both the services and the sanctions made available through juvenile justice system

Funding

This project is sponsored by the Ohio Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) through the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio for the Violent Gang and Gun Crime Reduction Program: Project Safe Neighborhood (2014-PS-PSN-431) under Grant No. 2014-PS- PSN-00006 to the Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing (Kno.e.sis) and the Center for Urban and Public Affairs (CUPA) titled: Westwood Partnership to Prevent Juvenile Repeat Offenders. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the investigator(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact: Sanjaya Wijeratne