ISSN 1062-7421
Vol. 12 No. 2 (February 2002) pp. 84-85.


THE POLITICS OF COMMUNITY CRIME PREVENTION: IMPLEMENTING OPERATION WEED AND SEED IN SEATTLE by Lisa L. Miller. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co., 2001. 201pp. Cloth $79.95. IBSN: 0-7546-2140-5.

Reviewed by Mary W. Atwell, Department of Criminal Justice, Radford University.


This book addresses important questions dealing with public policy initiatives designed to address crime and citizens' responses to those efforts. Miller focuses on two neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington. She traces the initiation of federal anti-crime programs, their reception in the community, and the influence local residents were able to bring upon the ultimate shape of the programs. Unfortunately, the author appears to exhaust the topic in the first chapter or two. The remainder of the book repeats the same themes, and even repeats the same examples. What might have been a substantial article is, instead, an extremely thin book.

At the outset, Miller sets up a conceptual framework within which she analyzes the implementation of the Weed and Seed program. Essentially she contrasts the original federal initiative that is based on a fairly conservative set of assumptions about crime-individualistic and offender-based-with the "community" perspective that she describes as more focused on the long-range causes of crime. It appears that such conflict was inherent in Weed and Seed itself. The program represented an effort to combine a punitive approach (the "Weed" element designed to rid neighborhoods of offenders) with the "Seed" element, which suggests institution building in
the interest of crime prevention. What Miller calls different definitions of "crime prevention," actually seems to be differences between crime control and crime prevention strategies. In other words, she seems to be explaining how two groups-one focused on crime control and one focused on prevention- talk past each other and have difficulty finding common ground. In any event, one of her major themes is that this fundamental contradiction played itself out as the project was implemented. Activists at the local level, who see crime as a more complex social phenomenon, may challenge the monolithic approach to crime, articulated by politicians at the national level, who emphasize a harsh punitive approach.

The role of the police is critical to the Weed and Seed story in Seattle and elsewhere. Miller calls community policing "the bedrock principle that connects weeding and seeding." Ideally, with a community-policing model, the ongoing, informal presence of officers in the neighborhood builds trust with residents, thus both deterring crime and encouraging cooperation. The model also incorporates work with community members to identify trouble spots and to craft responses to problems. The
federal Weed and Seed guidelines apparently envisioned law enforcement officers playing such roles. However, the prominence of police in the program roused immediate suspicion among people in the targeted areas. Rather than

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seeing the police as agents of change, they feared that a greater police presence would be oppressive, that more police discretion would result in more arrests-and few positive changes.

Embedded in the skepticism about the role of law enforcement is, of course, the issue of race. Miller argues that historic racism, selective enforcement, and selective protection led to long-standing tensions between police and black residents. She also asserts that African Americans tend to identify social causes for crime, while police and the groups they represent tend to blame criminal behavior on individual character. Law enforcement emphasizes crime control; members of minority groups emphasize crime prevention. Given these differences, some community groups-whose involvement in Weed and Seed was both mandated and crucial-resisted participation until they became convinced that their perspective would be heard. The middle chapters of the book report in great detail how community organizations made their concerns known and, ultimately, how they managed to divert more of the program's resources into prevention programs, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, health services for teenagers, and drug treatment. Although both the author and some of her sources bemoan the failure of the program to solve deeply rooted problems like unemployment and poor schools, such issues would require resources of a magnitude far beyond anything Weed and Seed could provide.

Although I have a strong suspicion that the author is correct in arguing that race is correlated with responses to crime, the case would be stronger if more recent data were used. Surveys taken in the 1980s may or may not still be accurate. For one thing, they fail to take into account the effects of the "war on drugs" on the black community. If anything, members of minority groups may be more skeptical about law enforcement than they were ten years ago.

Many interesting themes are introduced in this book. The discussion of crime-response strategies-opportunity reduction, order maintenance, and Miller's term, "community-centered"-is useful, although again, crime control sometimes gets muddled with crime prevention. Too often concepts lack precision. Just as one thinks she has grasped the author's typology, categories slide together. Further elaboration of the connections between the strategies and the criminological theories that support them would have been worthwhile. A more thoughtful treatment of these larger concepts could have given the book more scope than a minutely drawn case study.

Finally, in a book selling for almost $80, one would like to see careful editing. I would hesitate to recommend that students buy such an expensive book on a fairly narrow topic. However, anyone who does make such a purchase should not have to read with red pencil in hand to make corrections.

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Copyright 2002 by the author, Mary W. Atwell.