Calming the Gathering Storm: A Case Study of Leadership Processes in Two Collaborative Violent Crime Reduction Initiatives and Implications for Sustainability

The purpose of this study was to discover and describe the role and processes of leaders of collaborative violent crime reduction initiatives in two urban communities that led to substantial reduction in violent crime. The study also sought to draw implications for sustainability. The research question was: What were the processes that leaders of collaborative violent crime reduction initiatives use to promote sustainability? This study examined implementation processes of two unique collaborative initiatives that involved different branches of government (executive and judicial), levels of jurisdiction (federal, state and local), and agencies with varying, and oftentimes competing interests. The goal of this case study was to discover how and why the leaders of two collaborative efforts were able to achieve and maintain significant violent crime reduction over time following implementation. Collaboration of this magnitude is extremely difficult to maintain given the culture of law enforcement agencies, government agencies, community agencies and social services.;Change processes and roles of leaders in Evergreen (pseudonym) and Lakeland (pseudonym) that implemented similar violent crime reduction initiatives were explored. Evergreen successfully implemented a collaborative violent crime reduction initiative which showed a decrease in the annual number of homicides and/or violent crimes which was sustained below baseline for ten consecutive years. At the time of this study, Lakeland was implementing a comprehensive and somewhat similar initiative with modifications for the size, culture and resources of the city. Initial implementation in one neighborhood had shown a reduction in violent crime in that area.