One purpose of the national Model Cities Program was to reduce the incidence of crime and delinquency in poverty blighted areas to levels prevailing in the remainder of the community. A measurable goal projected by the Austin program was to reduce crime in its Model City Area (in comparison to the rest of the city) by at least 8.73 per cent during the operational years of the program. The central problem of the study was to examine the relationships between official crime rates in the Austin Model City Area in comparison to residual areas of the city. Robbery, burglary, and auto theft rates were singled out for intensive study over the six year operational period of the program to see if they were converging with comparable rates in the rest of the city. Ultimate implication: the Model Cities Program was probably a contributing factor in the reduction of selected crimes in the Model Neighborhood and census tracts containing it.