How Nonprofits Have Contributed To America's Decline In Crime

Over the last 25 years, violent crime rates have declined in the United States. Researcher Patrick Sharkey says one factor behind the declining rates doesn't get the attention it deserves: the-on-the-ground work of community non-profit organizations. Sharkey has found that each additional nonprofit dedicated to confronting violence leads to a 1 percent drop in a city's murder rate.

Patrick Sharkey, chair of the sociology department at New York University and author of "Uneasy Peace: The Great Crime Decline, the Renewal of City Life, and the Next War on Violence."