CHRISTOPHER LEON JONES, JR.*

* B.B.A. 1989, University of Michigan; J.D. 1992, Howard University. The author may be contacted at cljonesjr@hawaii.rr.com. The author served with the United States Department of Justice as an Attorney-Advisor in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs from July 19, 1998, until December 30, 2000. I am indebted to the people of Memphis, Tennessee, who worked tirelessly to implement the innovative program described in this article, and especially to United States Attorney Veronica F. Coleman, whose courage to make a difference should serve as an inspiration to all. The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the United States Department of Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION
II. COMMUNITY PROSECUTION
III. THE PROJECT COORDINATOR
IV. THE STAGES OF THE STRATEGIC APPROACHES MODEL
    A. Stage One: Develop an Inter-Agency Group and Select a Problem
    B. Stage Two: Gather Information and Data About a Local Crime Problem
    C. Stage Three: Design a Strategic Intervention To Tackle the Problem
    D. Stage Four: Implement the Intervention
   E. Stage Five: Assess and Modify the Strategy As the Data Reveal Effects
V. CONCLUSION

(1) Form an inter-agency group;

(2) Gather information and data;

(3) Design the intervention;

(4) Implement the intervention;

(5) Assess and modify the strategy.¹⁶

While the United States Code sets forth the duties of the United States Attorney, there is also a role that the United States Attorney plays in each community where he or she serves. As the chief law enforcement officer in each federal district, the United States Attorney holds a unique place within the law enforcement community to serve as a convener to marshal federal and state resources.²⁴ This model of the United States Attorney as convener was utilized by United States Attorney Don Stern in the District of Massachusetts during the Boston Gun Project and serves as the standard for the Strategic Approaches model.²⁵

The basic unit of work is different. Community oriented lawyers think in terms of the problems of particular people and places, not just crimes and cases. They think beyond the individual drug sale to the drug market itself; beyond the civil action for termination of parental rights to the woman who seems trapped in a cycle of abusive relationships.

The definition of success has changed. Previously, success was a simple concept: Win the case, secure the benefit, resolve the complaint in a way favorable to the client. For community oriented lawyers the bottom line is solving problems, increasing neighborhood safety, preventing crime, improving the quality of life, and fostering economic development.

The relationship to the community is different.In the new paradigm, the community helps define what is important, what constitutes success. The new breed of lawyers are, however, not so much controlled by the community as oriented to it, listening actively to victims, service providers, criminal justice researchers, offenders (and skeptics). And they see the community as a potential partner in solutions, not merely a passive complainant.

Collaboration with other groups is frequent and intense.In more conventional practice, lawyers work alone or in small groups (of lawyers). Once they shift to solving problems and generating outcomes, they discover that success depends on educating, persuading, cajoling, meeting, sharing information, and even sharing power with other agencies and organizations, public and private.

The tool kit is larger.The new breed of lawyers treats conventional case processing as a tool, not an end in itself. They use civil remedies, invent new forms of action, create new organizations (community courts, for example), mobilize neighborhood residents, educate victims, use nonadversarial remedies; in other words, whatever it takes. They are much more likely than their peers to rely on negotiated, voluntary compliance.

The key question is different.The lawyer in conventional practice asks, "What happened?" Community oriented lawyers ask, "What's happening?" In other words, the angle of vision is profoundly different: One is trying to assign responsibility for what has happened, the other to reshape what will happen.⁴³

New Outcome Measures Needed.—The new lawyering plays havoc with standard tools of evaluation. It is easy to count cases won, lost, and processed as a measure of success, but there is no common language to describe what community oriented lawyers do, no taxonomy to classify problems. Research has produced some detailed descriptions of community prosecutors' work, but neither researchers nor practitioners have developed a metric for the increments of progress to be expected from good community oriented lawyering.

Practitioners need and want help from researchers to develop tools for answering hard questions about resource allocation: What proportion of the lawyers in an office should spend time on problem solving or strategic thinking in place of, or in addition to, case processing? Should a police department spend its discretionary budget dollars for an additional lawyer, another officer, or new technology? Should the housing agency add more inspectors or more attorneys? If a drug court is half as "efficient" at processing cases, is it worth the expenditure if another judge must be added to handle the case load? Is community oriented lawyering a specialty practice for a few or an approach that should transform entire offices? And so on.

Ensuring Equity.—At what point might a community focus threaten fairness and equal treatment? These lawyers have enormous discretion. Prosecutors decide whom to charge and for what crime. Municipal lawyers select which neighborhood problem will be the priority for their attention. Pro bono lawyers must choose which project will receive their time. When one drug dealer or nuisance property is given special attention instead of another, on the basis of community impact rather than existing guidelines, charges of discrimination may arise.

Confronting Skepticism.—The new approach is not without its critics. Some of them contend the lawyers will not really listen. Others are concerned that communities will have undue influence. And, as with the introduction of community policing, there is substantial initial resistance among lawyers. Often lawyers report that their problem solving is not valued by their offices or their peers, and they are not recognized by the law schools, by their profession, or by their key constituents. Some endure ridicule; others are accused of "selling out." In more than one instance low "stats" have placed a project or office at risk for funding cuts.⁴⁵

The value of the "Community Oriented Lawyering" approach was seen in the selection of the Project Coordinators for SACSI, with four of the sites selecting attorneys to serve in this critical role.

III. THE PROJECT COORDINATOR

As described above, there are some important players in implementing the Strategic Approaches model.⁴⁶ After serving as the Project Coordinator in Memphis, I realize that there is some insight to be gained by any reader who might already be engaged in the process, or for those who might be selecting a person to serve in this role. By virtue of the position, the Project Coordinator is a leader. As a leader, one must remember to keep an eye on the larger agenda at all times and must not sacrifice the big picture for the sake of small victories. One must also be prepared to hold his or her ground and be ready to pitch in and work on all facets of the project. Some areas will be new, but the Project Coordinator must set the example and earn the respect of the group. The role of the Project Coordinator is

to manage[] the daily process, facilitated the conversation, move[] the group toward the collective goal, ensure[] that different components of the partnership[] are working effectively, hold[] the group to task, and work[] with the research partner to think through the nexus of operational capacities, local data analysis, and crime control theory.⁴⁷

As one might imagine, the functions will vary with the requirements of each day; however, there are some general themes to remember. Managing the daily process requires keeping your mind on the daily routine, writing the reports, calling the group meetings, and directing the tasks that need to be completed. Facilitating the conversation and ensuring the components are working effectively are two components that go together; this part of the role requires one to keep the communication lines open among all facets of the partnership, in particular, between researchers and practitioners, and between agency heads and front-line workers. Visiting the agencies on a regular basis helps to accomplish this part of the role.

The crucial element of the Project Coordinator's role is holding the group to task. Fulfilling commitments and keeping up enthusiasm can be difficult, but it is the Project Coordinator's responsibility to continue to reinforce the goals of the group and move the intervention strategies toward achieving the group's objectives. Because of their level of expertise, it is tempting to let the researchers go along without much supervision. One should resist the temptation. It is important to continuously work with the researchers not only to define the research objectives, but also to ensure the analysis will meet the requirements of the group.

The Project Coordinator lives and breathes the team's mission at all times. He or she becomes a symbol. The earliest leadership test I saw in Memphis occurred with the selection of the name of our group. Because I was new to the position and the city, it was important for me to establish camaraderie early. Over a period of several weeks, the choices were narrowed and cohesion was developed. We chose the name of the Memphis Strategic Team Against Rape and Sexual Assault (STARS). The name captured the essence of what the group wanted to be—a team of  individual units that had come together to achieve a common purpose. The early victory in selecting a name created the right environment to foster a partnership. Throughout the process, the objective was to keep the partnership together by keeping everyone involved. Upon entering the stages of the Strategic Approaches model, the value of the partnership will increase in ways that are difficult to anticipate in the beginning of the process.

IV. THE STAGES OF THE STRATEGIC APPROACHES MODEL

After developing the strategic plan and communications strategy, attention was turned to developing the intervention strategies that would achieve our objectives. As intervention strategies are being developed, one should consider some important questions developed by David Kennedy, as quoted by Using Knowledge and Teamwork to Reduce Crime.⁶⁵ These questions, based on the goal of finding a strategy with the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time and using the least resources, are as follows:

[1] How big an impact is the intervention likely to have?

[2] How long will it take before we see the impact?

[3] Do we have the capacity and resources to do it?

[4] Why do we want to use this intervention rather than another?

[5] What are the side benefits or drawbacks?⁶⁶

In order to develop our intervention strategies, our Working Group was separated into three smaller committees. Each committee was tasked with addressing one of the typologies identified by the research and was empowered to develop intervention strategies, both short-term and long-term. Our committees were led by a member of the research team and a member of the Core Group. The idea was to utilize the expertise of the researcher as an "expert"⁶⁷ and the Core Group members' knowledge of the earlier planning process.

E. Stage Five: Assess and Modify the Strategy As the Data Reveal Effects

This feedback loop provided for a reexamination of data as reports were made on the interventions. An example of this process at work was the reevaluation of the vehicle offenses typology. Through closer examination of the cases, the team realized that the sexual assault situations in which a vehicle was used in the commission of an offense was not a separate typology; vehicles were actually an instrument that were being used to commit the offenses seen in the adult offender/teen victim typology. As a result of further analysis of the data, our focus was refined; we stopped separating the vehicle offenses as an independent typology and included them as part of the adult offender/teen victim typology.

APPENDIX A

MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST
RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT:
STRATEGIC PLAN

MISSION STATEMENT

The MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT (STARS) coordinates federal, state, and local law enforcement efforts with government agencies, research universities, and community groups to reduce the number of sexual assaults occurring in the city of Memphis. In furtherance of accomplishing this mission, we will develop a research-driven, collaborative process that will not only achieve the goal of reducing sexual assaults, but will be transferable to other problems of crime within Memphis and Shelby County.

Critical Tasks:

(1) Collect, analyze, and evaluate sexual assault incident data from all necessary agencies who treat and assist victims;
(2) Elicit cooperation of neighborhood residents and establish community policing efforts;
(3) Develop and implement programs that foster prevention and intervention;
(4) Develop collaborative ties between residents, law enforcement, and government in improving the quality of life in neighborhoods.
Objectives:
(1) To reduce the number of vehicle-related offenses;
(2) To reduce the number of offenses by repeat offenders;
(3) To enforce a "zero tolerance" policy regarding sexual assaults committed by adult males against teen-age girls;
(4) To increase the effectiveness of investigative methods for prosecuting offenders and services provided to         victims.

AREA OF OPERATIONS

We will operate in selected neighborhoods within the city of Memphis. Neighborhoods will not be chosen solely on the basis of the number of sexual assaults occurring within them. Factors to be considered in assessing the viability of deploying intervention strategies within a neighborhood include: (1) community policing efforts, (2) schools, (3) business development, and (4) neighborhood associations. The neighborhood not only must be willing to accept the implementation of intervention strategies, but also must be able to promote institutional efforts that will produce long-lasting changes.

This collaborative process we have undertaken is a difficult one. The commitment of time and work can pose hardships upon individuals and organizations. Limitations on efforts may take the form of legal or political policy, or resource allocation and availability. It becomes the responsibility of all team members to ensure that desired goals are reached by creative problem-solving approaches, and not stifled by limited thinking.

Some areas that can torpedo our efforts: (1) failure in achieving goals, (2) too much time without action, (3) poor management, (4) political meddling and grandstanding, and (5) public backlash. Additionally, it is expected that personnel within organizations will change throughout the course of this initiative. Such change may require reeducation, but our challenge is to build a process that is so good that no one would want to back away from it.

COURSE OF ACTION

Team members are expected to bring all resources that are available or can be made available to achieve the goals of the team. The project coordinator is responsible for facilitating strategic thinking, coordinating data collection, providing guidance, and continually keeping abreast of new and established approaches for use in developing strategies, theories, techniques, and goals for the STARS programs. Accordingly, it is expected that the project coordinator will make decisions that will keep the Memphis STARS program moving forward to achieve the goals of the team. Decisions affecting the group will be made and/or ratified as necessary through collaboration of all team members.

The rate of sexual assault is at a level that is unacceptable to the leadership and populace in the city of Memphis.Sexual assault is a large problem—a problem we can only address in a small way within the time frame of this initiative. Sexual assault is often seen in the context of rape or child abuse and incest. The Memphis Police Department's Sex Crimes Bureau investigates a broad range of offenses of a sexual nature, including kidnapping and stalking. Nevertheless, our data suggests that we can focus on rape, attempted rape, statutory rape, and sexual battery within the context of our methodology as discussed below.

In order to implement the interventions that are ultimately designed by the Memphis STARS, we have adopted the methodology of "TIPS," or Typology-driven Intervention and Prevention Strategies for ending sexual assaults, which is based on the premise that different sexual assault scenarios (types) call for different kinds of interventions. For example, opportunistic encounters that involve alcohol and social situations among young people may respond to education. The first scenario on which we have decided to focus our efforts involves vehicles, including both forced abductions and women/girls voluntarily getting into cars with men/boys they do not know well or at all (e.g., a teen-age girl who is offered a ride home from school and is then assaulted by her "good Samaritan").

Additionally, there are two other scenarios we will address. First, a significant portion of cases within our area involve teen-age girls (thirteen to fifteen years of age) and men who are significantly older (twenty-five years of age and older). A policy decision has been made by the Tennessee legislature that, generally, sexual activity between teenage girls and men who are four years older than the girls is a crime. This scenario defines the traditional scenario of statutory rape, where consent is not an issue. For any number of reasons, statutory rape cases have not been pursued in the past; however, the number of cases is significant enough to warrant attention and consider efforts at reduction.

Second, approximately ten percent of sexual assaults in Memphis are committed by repeat offenders—people who have committed sexual assaults before and will apparently continue to commit sexual crimes without regard to punishment. If there is anything more frustrating to members of the public, it is crimes committed again and again by the same offender. This public response has created a situation where convicted felons face greater punishment for any future violations of the law. Fully utilizing the tools available to protect the public from individuals who refuse to conform their behavior to the acceptable standards expected of those in a civilized society is a part of our challenge in reducing the number of sexual assaults.

Consistent with our approach, there will be three specific categories of intervention and prevention strategies: (1) crime prevention through environmental design strategies, (2) law enforcement (including community policing strategies), and (3) primary prevention/education. Team members will form committees to brainstorm and design intervention and prevention strategies that will address the specific assault scenarios described above. Through application of problem-solving techniques, team members will bring their practical knowledge to bear on devising specific solutions. Some examples which have come from this process include:

(1) Creating a task force among practitioners that is designed to provide input from front-line workers and ensure cases do not "fall through the cracks" in the criminal justice process;
(2) Engagement of school officials and development of outreach to target audience;
(3) Focusing on repeat offenders and the existing programs to prevent recidivism;
(4) Targeting adult offenders who victimize younger girls.

The course of action described above is intended to provide for an immediate impact in a short amount of time. Moreover, it is expected that the collaboration process utilized to produce our results will provide a framework for not only continuing efforts to reduce sexual assaults, but will be transferred to address other crime problems that affect the citizens of Memphis. In Memphis, we are pleased to have assembled a world-class team of researchers from the University of Memphis and from the University of Tennessee-Memphis. Our researchers are joined by a Core Group, consisting of local practitioners representing the United States Attorney's Office, the City of Memphis Division of Police Services, the City of Memphis Division of Public Services, the District Attorney General's Office, the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission. In conjunction with the Core Group is a larger Working Group which includes representatives from area law enforcement agencies, Memphis City Schools, community organizations, and interested agencies. All of these entities have brought their collective efforts together to form the Memphis Strategic Team Against Rape and Sexual Assault.

WORKING GROUP COMMITTEES AND TIME-LINE

The Working Group committees are designed to bring in the expertise of individual practitioners to solve the collective problems identified in the above discussion. In particular, the committees will target their efforts to achieve the specific baseline objectives set forth in the Mission Statement. The committees will develop intervention strategies to achieve the baseline objectives and will prepare a specific plan for implementation.

The committee plans will be presented on July 21, 1999. The plans should set out the suggested intervention strategy(ies), identify necessary resources, and assign any necessary tasks to responsible agencies and/or individuals. Where multiple intervention strategies are suggested, committees should rank order the strategies for priority in implementation. Each of the committees will choose a Chair, who will be responsible for calling meetings of the committee.

In accordance with our initial Research Proposal for the Memphis Strategic Initiative on Sexual Assault, our time-line for action is as follows:

Summer 1999

June 1999:	(a) Working Group committees begin meeting weekly for developing interventions; (b) Core Group assesses protocol for action;
July 1999:	Conduct retreat where Working Group committees present reports for intervention strategies and decisions are made for implementation;
Aug. 1999:	Begin implementation of intervention strategies.

Fall 1999

Sept.-Nov. 1999:

Working Group committees meet twice monthly to evaluate and adjust interventions.

Winter 1999-2000

Dec. 1999:	Present preliminary assessment of results;
Jan.-Mar. 2000:	Working Group committees meet twice monthly to evaluate and adjust interventions.

Spring 2000

Apr. 2000:	Begin outcomes assessment;
May 2000:	Begin impact assessment;
June 2000:	Complete assessments and begin writing report for National Institute of Justice.

Summer 2000

July 2000:

(a) Submit final report to National Institute of Justice; (b) Memphis STARS meet for final assessment and future planning.

 

APPENDIX B

MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST
RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT:
REPORT FROM THE WORKING GROUP RETREAT

The Alumni Center
The University of Memphis
July 21,1999

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT (STARS) has established several critical tasks and objectives to help achieve the goal of reducing the rate of sexual assault in the city of Memphis. One of those tasks is to develop and implement programs that foster prevention and intervention of sexual crimes. To begin the implementation process, a retreat was held on July 21, 1999, at the Alumni Center on the campus of the University of Memphis.

Beginning in June 1999, three working committees and two task forces were formed to develop intervention strategies. Those strategies and the task force recommendations were prepared and presented to the Working Group on July 21, 1999. Our purpose in conducting the retreat was to evaluate the recommendations, determine their feasibility, and develop our comprehensive plan for intervention. Several other recommendations came out of discussion during the retreat, and ultimately, the committee work, task force recommendations, and discussion during the retreat yielded a total of thirty-eight recommended intervention strategies.

After presentation of the strategies and recommendations, the participants were divided into five groups to review the recommended interventions and evaluate the following five questions: (1) What is the impact of the intervention; (2) Can we do it; (3) Do we want to do it; (4) What are the costs; and (5) Can it be accomplished in a timely manner? The participants were then redistributed into four groups and asked to rank the recommendations from one to four. A ranking of "one" represented those items that we can accomplish today and that would have high impact without new expenditures of money or resources; a ranking of "four" represented those items that should be eliminated.

The retreat concluded with a commitment to begin implementing those items ranked as "one." Since the retreat, a series of interventions were selected from the list of recommended strategies because they were identified as available for immediate implementation. Those interventions were categorized as: (1) Police interventions, (2) Prosecution interventions, (3) Team Response interventions, (4) Offender-related interventions, and (5) Education interventions.

There is plenty of work to do; however, the product of the retreat demonstrates that we can be successful through this process of collaboration and reach the ultimate goal of reducing the rate of sexual assault in the city of Memphis.

INTRODUCTION

The Strategic Plan for the MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT (STARS) sets forth several critical tasks and objectives that have been established to help achieve the goal of reducing the rate of sexual assault in the city of Memphis. Those critical tasks and objectives are as follows:

Critical Tasks:

(1) Collect, analyze, and evaluate sexual assault incident data from all necessary agencies who treat and assist victims;
(2) Elicit cooperation of neighborhood residents and establish community policing efforts;
(3) Develop and implement programs that foster prevention and intervention;
(4) Develop collaborative ties between residents, law enforcement, and government in improving the quality of life in neighborhoods.
Objectives:
(1) To reduce the number of vehicle-related offenses;
(2) To reduce the number of offenses by repeat offenders:
(3) To enforce a "zero tolerance" policy regarding sexual assaults committed by adult males against teenage girls;
(4) To increase the effectiveness of investigative methods for prosecuting offenders and services provided to victims.

To begin the implementation process, a retreat was held on July 21, 1999, at the Alumni Center on the University of Memphis campus. Dr. Joann Keyton, Associate Professor in the Department of Communications at the University of Memphis, facilitated the retreat. The retreat was a culmination of a process which began during the Working Group meeting on June 9, 1999. At that meeting, the Working Group divided into committees designed to bring the expertise of individual practitioners together to develop solutions to specific typologies associated with sexual assault identified by the data. The following typologies were identified: (1) assaults related to the use of a vehicle (vehicle offenses), (2) assaults by adult offenders on teenage victims (adult offenders/teen victims), and (3) assaults involving individuals who have been identified in more than two prior sexual offenses (repeat offenders).

There were two additional areas that were identified for attention. First, a task force of practitioners was assembled to look at the relationship of sexual assault by intimate partners (either (ex)boyfriends or (ex)spouses), as seen in domestic violence cases. Second, a "street-level" task force, involving advocates and a forensic nurse from the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center (MSARC), investigators from the Memphis Police Department's (MPD) Sex Crimes Bureau, and an Assistant District Attorney General, was formed to bring the perspective of those who deal with offenders and victims on a day-to-day basis to our discussions.

The three Working Group committees met regularly to develop recommended intervention strategies designed to address its assigned typology and to achieve the specific baseline objectives set forth above. Those strategies and the task force recommendations were prepared and presented to the entire Working Group on July 21, 1999. Our purpose in conducting the retreat was to evaluate the recommendations, determine their feasibility, and develop our comprehensive plan for intervention.

THE RETREAT

The committee work and discussion during the retreat yielded a total of thirty-eight recommended intervention strategies. These recommendations were labeled sequentially based on the order of presentation by the committee or task force, and are listed below.

Intervention Recommendations:

Committee: Vehicle Offenses

1.1: Rethinking the role of nursing in education and prevention
1.2: Rethinking the role of local businesses
1.3: Rethinking the role of safe havens
1.4: Rethinking the role of education
1.5: Rethinking the role of police
1.6: Rethinking the role of transportation
1.7: Rethinking the role of forfeiture legislation

Committee: Repeat Offenders

2.1: Availability of investigators after hours
2.2: Legislative and policy changes
2.3: Prosecution strategies
2.4: Victim Support Specialist
2.5: Community supervision of sex offenders

Committee: Sexual Assault by Intimate Partners Task Force

3.1: 24-hour Sex Crimes (Unit)
3.2: Witness Response Team
3.3: No-drop policy
3.4: Relationship skills curriculum
3.5: Criminal Justice training
3.6: High Risk Response Team

Committee: Adult Offenders/Teen Victims

4.1: Aggressive use of statutory rape (charges)
4.2: Opportunity-blocking strategies targeting teen victims
4.3: Juvenile court referral system for teen victims of sexual assault
4.4: Media campaign
4.5: Preventive education
4.6: Institutionalizing Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) to implement existing statewide recommendations and access existing statewide and federal resources

Committee: Street-Level Task Force

5.1: Pro-active media involvement
5.2: Targeting common attitudes in the community
5.3: Education of youth
5.4: Training
5.5: Offender groups
5.6: Vertical prosecution

Other recommendations that arose from discussion during the Retreat

6.1: District Attorney General's Office establishing a pre-charge screening unit that is available twenty-four hours
6.2: Pre-arrest policy for rapes similar to policy for domestic violence
6.3: Recognizing developmentally disabled as special population for housing
6.4: Developing Sexual Assault Council (modeled after the existing Domestic Violence Council)
6.5: User-friendly physical space for Sex Crimes Bureau
6.6: Integrating data systems among agencies
6.7: Targeting code enforcement, particularly abandoned buildings
6.8: Developing intra-agency and inter-agency communication mechanism

After presentation, the participants were divided into five groups to review the recommended interventions and evaluate five questions: (1) what is the impact of the intervention, (2) can we do it, (3) do we want to do it, (4) what are the costs, and (5) can it be accomplished in a timely manner? The participants were then redistributed into four groups and asked to rank the recommendations from one to four. A ranking of "one" represented those items that we can accomplish today and that would have high impact without new expenditures of money or resources. A ranking of "two" represented those items that we can accomplish today, or within a short period of time, and that would have high impact, but would require some new expenditures of money or resources to sustain them over time. A ranking of "three" represented those items that are good ideas, but will not have an immediate impact or will take more time and money to accomplish. A ranking of "four" represented those items that should be eliminated. The rankings of each group were then averaged to achieve an overall ranking for the recommendation. The ranking breakdown is as follows:

Category One: There were twenty-four recommendations in Category One.

The following recommendations were ranked: 1.0
3.2: Witness Response Team
4.6: Institutionalizing Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) to implement existing statewide recommendations and access existing statewide and federal resources
6.4: Developing Sexual Assault Council (modeled after the existing Domestic Violence Council)
6.8: Developing intra-agency and inter-agency communication mechanism

The following recommendations were ranked: 1.2
2.1: Availability of investigators after hours
2.4: Victim Support Specialist
3.1: 24-hour Sex Crimes (Unit)
5.2: Targeting common attitudes in the community
5.6: Vertical prosecution

The following recommendations were ranked: 1.4
1.1: Rethinking the role of nursing in education and prevention
2.3: Prosecution strategies
3.5: Criminal Justice training
4.4: Media campaign
5.1: Pro-active media involvement
5.4: Training

The following recommendations were ranked: 1.6
1.2: Rethinking the role of local businesses
1.4: Rethinking the role of education
3.3: No-drop policy
6.7: Targeting code enforcement, particularly abandoned buildings

The following recommendations were ranked: 1.8
1.5: Rethinking the role of police
4.5: Preventive education
6.2: Pro-arrest policy for rapes similar to policy for domestic violence
6.5: User-friendly physical space for Sex Crimes Bureau
6.6: Integrating data systems among agencies

Category Two: There were eight recommendations in Category Two.

The following recommendations were ranked: 2.0
4.1: Aggressive use of statutory rape (charges)
5.3: Education of youth

The following recommendation was ranked: 2.1
1.3: Rethinking the role of safe havens

The following recommendations were ranked: 2.2
3.6: High Risk Response Team
4.2: Opportunity-blocking strategies targeting teen victims
6.1: District Attorney General's pre-charge screening unit that is available twenty-four hours

The following recommendations were ranked: 2.6
3.4: Relationship skills curriculum
6.3: Recognizing developmentally disabled as special population for housing

Category Three: There were six recommendations in Category Three.

The following recommendations were ranked: 3.0
1.7: Rethinking the role of forfeiture legislation
4.3: Juvenile court referral system for teen victims of sexual assault

The following recommendation was ranked: 3.2
2.2: Legislative and policy changes

The following recommendations were ranked: 3.4
2.5: Community supervision of sex offenders
5.5: Offender groups

The following recommendation was ranked: 3.7
1.6: Rethinking the role of transportation

Category Four: There were no recommendations in Category Four.

We ended the retreat with a commitment to begin implementing those items ranked as 1.0. Each of the four groups that ranked the recommendations was assigned one of the four recommendations that was ranked 1.0 and is expected to begin the implementation of that recommendation and report on the progress of implementation at the Core Group meeting scheduled for August 11, 1999. Each group has a member of the research team associated with it to provide direction.

CONCLUSION

From the rankings of the intervention strategies, it is clear that there is plenty of work to do; however, the choice to focus on sexual assault was made because sexual assault continues to be a problem within the city of Memphis. Necessary agencies have been identified who are critical to the implementation of the intervention strategies. Many of the strategies represent new ways of doing business for these agencies. It is important for each part of the Memphis STARS to take initiative and look for ways to leverage resources to implement the intervention strategies. The product of the retreat shows that we can be successful through this process of collaboration and reach the ultimate goal of preventing assaults from occurring in the first place.

NOTES

1. Roger Conner et al., The Office of the U.S. Attorney and Public Safety: A Brief History Prepared for the "Changing Role of U.S. Attorneys' Offices in Public Safety" Symposium, 28 CAP. U. L. REV. 753,766 (2000).

2. ld. at 769.

3. Veronica Coleman et al Using Knowledge and Teamwork to Reduce Crime, NAT'L INST. JUST. J Oct. 1999, at 22, available at http://ncjrs.org/pdffilesl/jr000241d.pdf. The structure of SACSI was designed to be a process model for crime reduction, applicable to any number of problems and issues. Id. at 18. The term "Strategic Approaches" will be used to refer to the process model itself, its theory, and its components. The term "SACSI" will be used to refer to the specific initiative as it operated in the pilot sites from 1998 through 2000.

4. Elizabeth Groff et al. Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI): Enhancing the Analytic Capacity of a Local Problem-Solving Effort, National Institute of Justice Website (last modified Dec. 7, 2000), at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/sacsi/sacsi_01.html (citation omitted).

5. Coleman, supra note 3, at 17-18.

6. Id. at 17.

7. Id. at 19-20.

8. Id.

9. Conner, supra note 1, at 756.
Federal courts and agencies were a relatively minor part of the American criminal justice system in the early 19th century, but it is probably not true that the [United States] District Attorney had only a marginal role in public safety. Public safety, as with most civic work, was the responsibility of entire communities, not a professionalized bureaucracy, and in this process lawyers generally were leaders of considerable note. Historian Philip VanderMeer has observed that from the 19th century through the early 20th century, lawyers as a group viewed themselves as public servants. "There was a presumption that lawyers had public responsibilities, and they were obliged to hold office, even if they did not wish to do so." In other words, pre-Civil War [United States] District Attorneys would have been expected to be community leaders on a variety of issues, particularly including public safety.
Id. (footnotes omitted).

10. As observed by David Kennedy, a senior researcher at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a key player in the Boston Gun Project,
	[o]ne key goal of criminal justice is to deter offending. The power of criminal justice agencies to do so is in great doubt, among both scholars and the public. . . . Current criminal justice policy relies mainly upon formal sanctions to generate deterrence, and upon increasing the severity of those sanctions to increase deterrence. And to reprise the obvious, those sanctions are brought to bear relatively rarely (punishment is not certain); when sanctions are brought to bear, they are generally brought to bear some considerable time after the crime was committed (punishment is not swift); and, despite the vogue of such things as three strikes and other draconian sentences, most convicted criminals are sentenced to probation and other less imposing sanctions (punishment is not, usually, severe).
David M. Kennedy, Pulling Levers: Chronic Offenders, High-Crime Settings, and a Theory of Prevention, 31 VAL. U. L. REV. 449, 460-61 (1997) (footnotes omitted).

 

11. Todd R. Clear & David R. Karp, Toward the Ideal of Community Justice, NAT'L INST. JUST. J., Oct. 2000, at 21, available at http://ncjrs.org/pdffilesl/jr000245f.pdf.
	Community justice might be best described as an ethic that transforms the aim of the justice system into enhancing community life or sustaining community. To achieve that aim, the community partners with the justice system to share responsibility for social control. This means some control devolves from the justice system, a powerful mechanism of formal social control, to the community, which through churches, schools, civic organizations, families, and similar institutions, exercises the informal social control that fosters civil behavior and public safety.
Id.

12. Coleman, supra note 3, at 17.

13. Id.

14. The five United States Attorneys were Veronica Coleman (Western District of Tennessee), Walter Holton (Middle District of North Carolina), Kristine Olson (District of Oregon), Stephen Robinson (District of Connecticut), and Judith Stewart (Southern District of Indiana). Id.

15. id.

16. Id. at 18.

17. Conner, supra note 1, at 767.

18. Id.
	[Janet Reno] promoted the value of partnerships with local law enforcement and also the value of collaboration with the broader community. From the Anti-Violent Crime Initiative of 1994, to the Firearms Violence Reduction Strategy of 1999, and the implementation of the Attorney General's call in 2000 for integrated District Initiatives to identify and reduce crime in our communities, Janet Reno has advanced a vision that the [United States] Attorney is uniquely positioned to create and nurture effective partnerships among various law enforcement agencies for the prevention and control of crime.
Id. (footnotes omitted).

19. Conner, supra note I, at 753. 'The partnerships envisioned between the Department of Justice's Washington and field components, between the Attorney General and the United States Attorneys, and among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies—represented substantial departures from the historical experience of these agencies." Conner, supra note 1, at 753.

20. Elizabeth Glazer, Thinking Strategically: How Federal Prosecutors Can Reduce Violent Crime, 26 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 573,575 (1999).

21. Id. One role that federal prosecutors can play in reducing violent crime is by bringing agencies together and coordinating the crime-control strategy. Id. at 574-75.

22. See generally Conner, supra note 1.

23. 28 U.S.C. 547 (2000).

24. Conner, supra note 1, at 754. "[T]he role, responsibilities, and resources of [United States] Attorneys' offices in public safety have changed dramatically and steadily, particularly over the past [thirty] years, as Congress and successive Presidents have responded to public demands for tougher anti-crime laws and increased resources to combat crime, particularly violent crime." Conner, supra note 1, at 754.

25. SACSI is a part of what communities are doing all over the country to reduce crime.
	SACSI builds on the lessons learned from crime analysis efforts like the New York City Police Department's CompStat unit, which emphasizes using data to solve problems, and the Weed and Seed strategy, which emphasizes coordination of resources to revitalize neighborhoods. Most directly, SACSI is an outgrowth of Boston's highly successful Gun Project, which was responsible for dramatic reductions in youth homicides in that city.
Coleman, supra note 3, at 18 (citations omitted).

26. David Kennedy, Pulling Levers: Getting Deterrence Right, NAT'L INST. JUST. J July 1998, at 3, available at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/jr000236.pdf.

27. Promising Strategies to Reduce Gun Violence, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Report (February 1999), available at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/gun_violence/profile02.html. See generally Kennedy, supra note 26.

28. Coleman, supra note 3, at 18.

29. Kennedy, supra note 10, at 466-67. Whether the pulling-levers sessions, as described by David Kennedy in Boston, are useful to any one city's specific crime-reduction plan, the philosophy of the strategy is a significant part of the foundation of the Strategic Approaches model.
	One image of how to apply the "pulling levers" approach in pursuit of general crime control, therefore, would be in a strategically serial fashion. Start with a specific problem. This problem could be selected in various interesting ways: because of its innate seriousness (e.g., youth homicide or domestic violence); because it generates a disproportionate drain on criminal justice agencies' control capacities (e.g., high-rate drug abusers or street drug dealing); because it creates environments that promote other kinds of crime and misbehavior (e.g., street drug dealing or disorder hot spots); or because it fosters other kinds of criminogenic dynamics (e.g., assaults between high-rate offenders). Next, reduce this problem to acceptable levels using "pulling levers" approaches (with, undoubtedly, other approaches used in conjunction). One now has a world much like the one in which one started, minus an important problem, perhaps with some displacement to other places and other offense categories, and a higher relative level of control capacity. Pick another problem, and repeat the process. In principle, this could be continued until the environment no longer supports it: that is, until there are no longer meaningful concentrations of offending in individuals, groups, and places, or until all remaining individuals and groups are utterly resistant to control short of incapacitation.
Id. at 477-78

30. Id. at 466-67 (footnotes omitted).

31. Id. at 461-62.

32. Id. at 463.

33. Id. at 464.

34. See infra Part IV.D.

35. See id.

36. Eric H. Holder, Jr., Community Prosecution, 34-JUNE PROSECUTOR 31, 31-32 (2000) (discussing a speech given by Holder announcing new Department of Justice funds for community prosecution grants).

37. Douglas F. Gansler, Implementing Community Prosecution in Montgomery County, Maryland, 34-AUG. PROSECUTOR 30, 31-32 (2000) (discussing the Office of the States Attorney for Montgomery County, Maryland, as an example of how an office can fully implement the concept of community prosecution). Gansler's article provides a description of the first office to completely implement community prosecution as the philosophy of the office, where all prosecutors and staff are assigned to a geographic area based on the police districts in the county. Id. at 30. Prosecutors handle only cases that come from their districts and are assigned to schools within the district for the purpose of encouraging community outreach. Id.

38. See Holder, supra note 36, at 32. "Establishing partnerships with the community and law enforcement as well as strong and real working relationships with other public and private agencies, is a key element to a successful community prosecution approach." Id. at 32; see also Clear & Karp, supra note 11.

39. Gansler, supra note 37, at 32.

40. Glazer, supra note 20, at 580.

41. Id.

42. Roger Conner, Community Oriented Lawyering: An Emerging Approach to Legal Practice, NAT'L INST. JUST. J Jan. 2000, at 28, available at http://ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/jr000242e.pdf.

43. Id.

44. Id. at 31-32.

45.  id. at 32.

46. See supra text accompanying note 15.

47. Coleman, supra note 3, at 17.

48. In Memphis, we assembled a world-class team that included the following organizations: Airways-Lamar Business Association, Christian Brothers University, City of Memphis Division of Police Services, City of Memphis Division of Public Services and Neighborhoods, District Attorney General's Office, Exchange Club Family Center, Girls Incorporated-Memphis Chapter, Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, Memphis Child Advocacy Center, Memphis City Schools, Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, Memphis/Shelby County Community Services, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, Shelby County Corrections, Shelby County Pretrial Services, Shelby County Sheriff's Department, State of Tennessee Department of Health, Shelby County Victims Assistance Center, Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole, Tennessee Department of Children Services, Tennessee Department of Corrections, United States Attorney's Office, University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee-Memphis. These entities brought their collective efforts together to form the Memphis Strategic Team Against Rape and Sexual Assault. This listing is not intended to be exclusive, as there were numerous individuals who participated and contributed to our efforts. This listing of agencies is only intended to give the reader an idea of the diverse nature of organizations whose participation was necessary to put together a successful effort.

49. One segment of the community not utilized until much later in the process was the business community. There were significant contributions made by the Airways-Lamar Business Association, which is based in South Memphis. Business support, including corporations, can be a part of the solution, but one must present them with a specific plan for how they can be involved and what benefit they will receive from their participation. The benefits are not necessarily monetary, but they have to see that their participation is good for their business. Improved community relations can certainly result in benefits, whether it be attracting more workers or drawing attention to the organization by being a good community neighbor. The Airways-Lamar Business Association understands this concept and the city of Memphis is better because of it.

50. The actual selection of sexual assault as the target crime occurred before my arrival in Memphis. In the spring of 1998, United States Attorney Coleman convened the first meetings of the Working Group and, after briefing them on the opportunity to participate in SACSI, asked the participants if there was a particular crime problem upon which Memphis should focus. Sexual assault was a near unanimous choice.

51. Coleman, supra note 3, at 19. "According to the FBI, the five-county Memphis metropolitan area ranked first in the Nation in 1997 with 107 forcible rapes per 100,000 population." Id.

52. Id. at 17.

53. Pub. L. No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1902 (codified as amended in scattered sections of Titles 2,8, 18,21, and 42 of the United States Code).

54. Conner, supra note 1, at 768.
	The Attorney General has also encouraged the [United States] Attorneys' offices to strengthen the partnerships within local law enforcement to reduce crime independent of a particular federally selected crime or subject. In the experimental [SACSI], five participating [United States] Attorneys' offices created local partnerships among law enforcement, researchers, prevention agencies, and community leaders, then encouraged the partnerships to select the crime problem to be addressed rather than following some federally set agenda or mandate.
Id. (citing Coleman, supra note 3, at 17).

55. See supra text accompanying notes 7-8.

56. These researchers were supported ably by a significant number of graduate students, to whom I am extremely grateful.

57. An early example illustrates the point. In March 1999, we were engaged in the process of reviewing cases to help gain better insight on how our local system responded to incidents of sexual abuse. In hindsight, the review may not have been the best idea, but I let it proceed. There was a real, and understandable, tension between the researchers wanting to know the answers to certain questions and practitioners keeping information "in-house"—a tension that must always be recognized. The review was shut down during a particular meeting when the possible sanctions for revealing information from cases was raised. While I had no reason to believe the intentions were anything less than honorable, the manner in which the comments were delivered had the effect of making everyone more cautious. Instead of continuing to break down the guards between agencies, this one act set up new guards that took months to work through. This situation stood in stark contrast to the development of our Community Safety Information System in the fall of 2000, a system that provided for crime data to be shared among fourteen different agencies, which was achieved by the execution of a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding. See also infra Part V.

58. The three typologies were identified as (1) vehicle offenses, (2) adult offenders/teen victims, and (3) repeat offenders. As will be seen in Stage Five, ultimately, we collapsed the vehicle offenses typology into the adult offender/teen victim typology because vehicle offenses were not a true independent offense. The vehicle offenses only represented one of the means used to carry out the situation of sexual assault involving adult offenders and teen victims. See Christopher Leon Jones, Jr Memphis Strategic Team Against Rape and Sexual Assault: A Synopsis (Mar. 1999) (unpublished manuscript, on file with author).

59. See, e.g., infra APPENDIX A—MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: STRATEGIC PLAN.

60. See, e.g., Kennedy, supra note 10, at 463-64.

61. As one writer has observed:
	Another crucial link between the [United States} Attorney's office and the community is the media. In today's age of communications, the media obviously wields significant influence. Therefore, the [United States] Attorney should cultivate the media for three important reasons: (1) to dissuade citizens from involving themselves in criminal activities; (2) to promote the reputation of the office and its policies; and (3) to provide a means by which to hold the [United States] Attorney accountable to the people in the communities the office serves. It takes experience, time, and years of correct decisions for a politician to build a solid relationship with the press. However, this type of relationship is absolutely necessary, because it can provide the means by which a savvy [United States] Attorney can influence public opinion and ultimately persuade the public into believing that this institution works in the community's best interest. Introducing the (United States] Attorney's Office to the community through the media may generate renewed support for efforts made by the [United States] Attorney to target previously identified problems within the community. More importantly, media coverage would provide the public with the opportunity to see the tangible results of its government officials in action.
Tom Rickhoff, The U.S. Attorney: Fateful Powers Limited, 28 ST. MARY'S L.J.499,525 (1997).

62. See infra APPENDIX A—MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: STRATEGIC PLAN.

63. Much of the credit for the success of our media efforts goes to Ms. Sylvia Oberle, who served as the Project Coordinator in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Ms. Oberle is a journalist by training and the one Project Coordinator who was not an attorney. Her advice and counsel were of great assistance to the development of the media strategies used in Memphis.

64. See Christopher Leon Jones, Jr Preventing Sex Assault Starts With You, THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, May 7,2000, at B3.

65. Coleman, supra note 3, at 20.

66. Coleman, supra note 3, at 20.

67. When the team's researchers get tired, never underestimate the power of "the outside expert." There is a natural tendency for the practitioners to rely on the researchers to develop all of the answers, which is not the role of the researchers in the Strategic Approaches model. In May 1999, our team had become stagnant in the development of our interventions and we brought in Ms. Maria Theresa Viramontes, Executive Director of the East Bay Public Safety Corridor Partnership. The East Bay Public Safety Corridor Partnership is a coalition of over forty municipalities in the bay area of California, and its crime reduction strategies have been operating for several years. Many of Ms. Viramontes' suggestions found their way into the committees' strategies. Ms. Viramontes' one-day visit to Memphis helped all of us see concrete ideas for action plans to move us forward.

68. See infra APPENDIX B—MEMPHIS STRATEGIC TEAM AGAINST RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT: REPORT FROM THE WORKING GROUP RETREAT.

69. In this stage of developing intervention strategies, the idea of a retreat, putting together committees, and having a time limit for action worked well to move us forward. With the benefit of hindsight, these steps could have been taken earlier. We were still finding our way through the process, but at this point I would break down our process in eight smaller parts: (1) assembling a Working Group and Core Group; (2) selecting a subject crime; (3) conducting initial research; (4) confirming selection of the subject and identifying trends/clustering; (5) selecting neighborhoods for intervention; (6) developing community ties; (7) breaking the Working Group into problem-solving committees to develop intervention plans to reduce the subject crime; and (8) holding a retreat to put the interventions together into an implementation plan of action. These steps were not completely sequential for our team; but, in retrospect, we appear to have moved through to an orderly process.

70. For each intervention developed, there seemed to be layers of detail no one anticipated initially; however, one good decision that was made in Memphis was to assign an agency to lead each intervention strategy. Some were natural; for example, using the Memphis Police Department to lead police interventions. Others were not as straightforward. Nevertheless, assigning a lead agency for the implementation of each intervention strategy encourages accountability. A system has to be established to ensure that agencies deliver on their commitments and meet their responsibilities.

71. A conscious effort was made by the Memphis Police Department and the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center to avoid any confusion about teaching sex education to the children. Frankly, teaching sex education was never a goal. One point made clear from our work was that sexual assault is a crime of violence, and because of this, many young people need to learn how to protect themselves. At the time of my departure, the school visits were beginning at the middle school and high school levels in the Memphis City Schools.

72. Coleman, supra note 3, at 22.

73. id.

74. Groff, supra note 4.

75. Id.

76. See Kennedy, supra note 10, at 465-66. Although a purely anecdotal assessment, if I had to list some successes that occurred during the operation of SACSI, they would be the following items: (l) a reduction in the target crime, (2) the acquisition of the CSIS, and (3) the improved local confidence in the system. I would also acknowledge some problems: (1) continued mistrust, (2) lack of full cooperation by some agencies, and (3) frustration with bureaucracy. As this article is being written, local and national evaluations are being prepared that may, or may not, confirm my own observations.

77. As David Kennedy acknowledged in the wake of Ceasefire in Boston:
	What lies in the way of a more strategic use of [the capacities of the criminal justice system] is largely conceptual and organizational. Conceptually, we must rid ourselves of the notion that the only way to be "tough on crime" is to put bodies in cells for longer and longer periods, and recognize that there is a vast range of other important costs that can shape offenders' behavior. We must face the fact that, at any given moment, some kinds of offending matter more than other kinds; that professions of "zero tolerance" are largely professions of zero credibility; and that by failing to use criminal justice discretion strategically we are effectively giving offenders the reins. We must recognize that most of the "signals" we send are weak, if not incoherent, and that we can and should send them much more plainly and directly.
id. at 480.

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