Prevention Works

More Than a Slap on the Wrist

Former WorldCom Chief Executive Bernard Ebbers reported to prison on September 26 to start his 25-year sentence for the part he played in a record $11 billion accounting fraud scheme. Since Ebbers is already 65, he will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. The question posed in the Washington Post article "Cook the Books, Get Life in Prison: Is Justice Served?" that was published on washingtonpost.com is whether the penalties for economic, white collar crimes are too severe, especially in comparison to sentences for violent crimes.  According to Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor who was quoted in the Washington Post article, "My own sense is that any sentence over 20 years for anybody for an economic crime is hard to justify." 

In a report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission (PDF), in FY03, the mean number of months a prisoner served for murder was 247.5.  The mean number of months served for manslaughter was 33.  Assuming that he serves his entire sentence, Ebbers will spend 300 months in prison.  According to an article by cnn.com, Ebbers has agreed to forfeit most of his assets, which are valued between $25 and $40 million, and pay an extra $5 million in cash to investors, so the prison sentence comes on top of his restitution payments.

In the past, the sentences for white collar crimes were significantly shorter.  However, in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, government officials have decided to crack down and enact stricter penalties for those who commit these complicated, hard-to-track crimes.  According to a quote in the Washington Post article from former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Harvey L. Pitt, "You want people to understand that just because they’re in high places, they make a lot of money and they can hire fabulous lawyers, that they’re not going to walk away with a slap on the wrist."

School Attack Averted After Student Report

A student's report to an associate principal led to the arrest of two teens from East High School in Green Bay, WI on Thursday, September 14.  When police searched the teens' homes, they found guns, knives, and ammunition.  The courageous student made the report after hearing one of the teens threaten to attack the school. 

As adults concerned about school safety, we need to realize that students are powerful allies.  They provide the eyes and ears that observe what is happening at school—where bullying takes place, where youth tend to get into fights, and where individuals sell or even use drugs.  Despite stereotypes that youth are disengaged, self-centered, and apathetic, most young people care about their communities and want to make their schools and neighborhoods better places. 

We can capitalize on that energy and commitment to help us make schools safer.  If the school in your community has a safety committee, ask if it includes youth representatives.  Find out if the school ever surveys its students to identify safety issues.  Resources from NCPC, such as the School Safety and Security Toolkit, can help schools involve youth in school safety efforts.  Student groups can also come together to design poster campaigns, peer mediation programs, and presentations for other students.  NCPC’s Youth Outreach for Victim Assistance project (managed in partnership with the National Center for Victims of Crime) and Youth Safety Corps program have helped young people in communities across the United States to implement projects that raise awareness of safety and help young people take steps to protect themselves. 

When adults provide opportunities to youth to get involved and voice their ideas, young people not only rise to the occasion and help to make the community safer, but they build trust and confidence that adults can and will protect them from harm.  That trust is essential if we want young people to come to us when they are being bullied, when they are pressured to use drugs, or when they hear a threat of school violence.  Working together, adults and youth can form a strong safety net for their schools and communities. 

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October 1, 2006, marks the beginning of the 18th annual observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  People will distribute purple ribbons to promote awareness of this worldwide issue.  The effects of domestic violence on its victims and those close to the victims are tremendous.  In most cases children witness the abuse and may suffer some sort of abuse themselves. 

The Family Violence Prevention Fund states that around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten.

A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that violence by male partners in the year prior to and during a woman’s pregnancy harms both the health of women during pregnancy and that of their newborn children. Abuse increases a woman’s risk of premature delivery and having a child who is born underweight and in need of intensive care.

The National Crime Prevention Council publication 50 Strategies to Prevent Violent Domestic Crimes takes readers behind the scenes of some of the best domestic violence prevention programs in 36 states with a discussion of the partnerships and components necessary to successfully apply the strategies in any setting. With tips from the field provided by program organizers, and lessons learned from the obstacles they faced, readers will be equipped to take the strategies back to their own communities.

If you or someone you know is the victim of domestic violence, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE (7233) or visit its website for more resources.

Is Dictating "Appropriate Dress" Appropriate?

The idea of regulating school dress codes might have stemmed from the once-popular phrase "dress right, act right."  Hoping to create a more professional learning environment, public school administrators began prohibiting girls from wearing slacks, dictating the length of girls’ skirts, and discouraging boys from wearing blue jeans and leather jackets in the 1950s. (Of course, students in parochial and many private schools wore uniforms much earlier.) Later, with the proliferation of gang activity in the 1980s, school administrators began considering stricter dress codes and the adoption of school uniforms in areas with significant gang activity, as attire has long been used to identify gang members.  So, according to the Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management, the Baltimore, MD, public school system became the first in the nation to adopt the use of school uniforms in 1987.  Finally, in 1996, then-president Bill Clinton endorsed the idea of public school uniforms in his State of the Union address, and they were immediately implemented at tremendous rates in urban areas across the country. 

Of course, dictating students’ dress codes raises many first amendment issues, and there are some pros and cons to consider.  First of all, while requiring students to wear uniforms does, according to some, "equalize" the students, there is no room for individuality or freedom of expression.  It also places a burden on families that cannot afford the uniforms, and in some school districts, uniforms could impose unnecessary control over the wearers. Therefore, many school officials agree that the use of strict dress codes or uniforms should only be enforced if they are deemed necessary to preserve a safe and professional learning environment. 

On the other hand, if the safety of students in a particular school district is threatened by gang activity or violence, strict dress codes or uniforms could help to keep weapons out of schools.  Requiring students to tuck in their shirts, for example, prevents them from carrying weapons on their waistlines.  As this dramatic video (Windows Media format) demonstrates, it is easy to hide weapons under plain, loose clothing.  Dress codes and school uniforms would also go a long way toward eliminating gang affiliation and recognition at school. However, it is not enough to prohibit vaguely defined "gang-related clothing," as students and administrators would probably disagree about what that is. It should not be left to the students to decide what the school considers "gang-related." That’s a decision for school administrators.

Preparedness and Prevention to Protect America

September 11 marked the fifth anniversary of the world’s worst terrorist attack, one that changed the lives of all Americans. Americans remember the exact moment they turned on the news or heard on the radio that three of our most well-known structures were burning and that a plane had crashed in a Pennsylvania field. It was at that moment we all realized that terrorists are not military, do not practice conventional warfare, and attack wherever they please. It was on September 11, 2001, that we all realized that we had to be prepared for and ready to prevent these terrorists from destroying our homeland.

The attacks of September 11th not only resulted in the creation of a government agency to fight terrorism, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but challenged every American to become involved in local homeland security. For years Americans have participated in Neighborhood Watch to reduce crime and fear of crime in their communities. Today, Neighborhood Watch can have an impact on preventing terrorism through training community members how to spot suspicious behavior, developing evacuation plans, discussing potential terrorist targets in the community, and assessing the impact an attack on one of these targets may have. To start a Neighborhood Watch in your community, please visit the National Sheriffs' Association website.  You can find more information and resources on our website, as well.

Terrorism is, perhaps, the most dangerous crime, so crime prevention can play an important part in our fight against terror. Using new and established crime prevention principles, communities must work with local law enforcement to prevent terrorism. Ways to prevent terrorism include understanding the nature and complexity of the problem, each individual’s role, the use of both formal and informal neighborhood-level groups, instruction on how to make an accurate and useful observations, reporting these observations to the proper authorities, establishing reliable links between the community and local law enforcement, and recognizing when community routines change.

Robbed at Random

The New York Times is publishing a series of articles on identity theft titled "Stolen Lives."  One of the articles in this series, "Some ID Theft Is Not for Profit, but To Get a Job," focuses on how illegal aliens are obtaining stolen Social Security numbers so that they can work legally in the United States.  One of the most interesting parts of the article was a quote by Marl Hinkle, a spokesman for the Social Security Administration, who said that the agency "is legally banned from sharing information with immigration or law enforcement agencies, or from telling the rightful owners of Social Security numbers that someone else is working under their number." 

Since people in foreign countries who disseminate illegal Social Security numbers are generating the numbers at random, with the exception of the first three digits, which are chosen to match a specific state, anyone could be at risk.  This includes children who would not find out that their Social Security number was being used until they were older and attempted to apply for a loan or a credit card.  Perhaps a way to prevent this type of crime would be for the federal government to be allowed to notify people that their Social Security number had been stolen or is being used by someone other than themselves. Another way would be to let businesses and credit bureaus determine if the number in use belongs to a minor, a remedy suggested by Jay Foley, director of the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego, in the Times article.

Rounding Up the Usual Suspects

The city of Oakland, CA, has been battling a spike in violent crime recently.  The number of homicides in the city this year has already exceeded the total number from last year.  Desperate to stop this trend, Oakland police have implemented a program called Operation Cease-Fire.  The program first had success in Boston where it effectively helped to reduce the crime rate.  Essentially, it involves rounding up suspected gang members and other criminals and having conversations with them.

Oakland police came up with a list of 100 troublemakers, and they plan to speak with each of them.  These people will not be charged with crimes, simply warned that they are being watched and their actions will have consequences.  Part of the reason that this approach has been effective in the past has to do with the social impact of being called out.

“These guys think they are anonymous,” said David Kennedy, an architect of the program, in an article by the International Herald Tribune.  “They do not know they’ve been singled out.  By the time they get caught, it’s too late for them to change their behavior.  They don’t know that there’s help they can take advantage of.  And they don’t know the community they are in desperately wants them to stop what they are doing.”

Various local and federal law officers will confront the troublemakers and offer social services, including job training, educational opportunities, and help with substance abuse.  In some cases, crime victims will be on-hand for added emotional pressure. 

The success of Operation Cease-Fire in Boston came to be known as the “Boston Miracle” because of the seemingly miraculous drop in the city’s crime rate.  The program has also been effective in Stockton, CA, just an hour away from Oakland.  It was announced in Oakland on August 3, so only time will tell if Operation Cease-Fire will yield similar, positive results for that city as well.

Teens, Crime, and Brain Development

Adolescence is defined in most cases as the transitional period between puberty and adulthood in human development, or the process or state of growing to maturity.  It is also a time when youth encounter and struggle with new and profound situations, including acceptance of responsibility, physical changes, and self discovery. 

In the United States you must be of a legal age to vote, drive, purchase alcohol, purchase tobacco, join the armed forces, and marry, among other things.  These restrictions are put in place because as a society we note the inability of youth to make rational and responsible decisions before a certain age. 

However in a court of law when an adolescent commits a crime we hand down sentences that any adult would receive.  Estimates are that more than 200,000 individuals under the age of 18 are prosecuted in criminal court each year.

In recent years there have been many studies done on the human brain’s development during adolescent years that would further prove society’s belief that youth are incapable of making highly rational decisions before adulthood. 

In a Juvenile Justice Center Report, Brain Development and Legal Culpability, scientist Dr. Elizabeth Sowell, a member of the UCLA brain research team, and colleagues found that

“The frontal lobe undergoes far more change during adolescence than at any other stage of life. It is also the last part of the brain to develop, which means that even as they become fully capable in other areas, adolescents cannot reason as well as adults.”

The frontal lobe has been found to play a part in impulse control, judgment, language, memory, motor function, problem solving, sexual behavior, socialization and spontaneity.  Frontal lobes assist in planning, coordinating, controlling, and executing behavior.

Research shows these adolescents are still in stages of development that do not equip them with the same judgment tools that we have as adults.  Still in a report published by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Juveniles in Adult Prisons and Jails, it states that “approximately 107,000 youth (younger than 18) are incarcerated on any given day.”

The National Crime Prevention Council’s program, Teens, Crime, and the Community (TCC) was created to reduce alarmingly high rates of teen victimization and to engage young people in their communities.  Research shows that teens involved in TCC are more likely to know more about types of crime victimization and their risk of crime, understand ways to prevent crime against themselves and their families, increase their belief in ethical rules and the need for laws, and reduce their own delinquency and their association with delinquent peers.

For more information on TCC visit our website at ncpc.org.