Prevention Works

Casting Too Wide a Net

Cities all across the nation are doing what they can to stem gang violence and prevent youths from joining gangs.  Residents in many cities, including Los Angeles, Oakland, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Philadelphia have sometimes found themselves in desperate situations as gang problems spiral out of control. Consequently, some large cities dealing with serious gang violence have also adapted more desperate policies in order to combat the problem. Some authors have highlighted these new prevention techniques on this blog with mixed emotions.   

Los Angeles, which has some of the toughest anti-gang measures in the country, has inspired other cities to follow suit.  However, as a recent New York Times article described it, some of those cities that adapted policies like L.A.’s are starting to repeal them, as they view many of the policies as ineffective, even counterproductive. 

Large-scale arrests have been a primary component of L.A.’s anti-gang initiatives. But according to the Times article, in Dallas, where many of the L.A. policies are currently being retracted, District Attorney Craig Watkins said, “L.A. has this approach of being tough on crime. But the result of that is overflowing prisons, high crime rates, and increasing numbers of gang members. Now we want to be smart on crime.” The article went on to describe how, even in Los Angeles, law enforcement officers have recently begun to focus more on prevention and intervention, visiting the homes of possible gang members to encourage their parents to get involved, rather than relying solely on arrests to reduce crime.

But meanwhile, California’s overcrowded prison system is being labeled “an emergency,” and the wide-net approach to arrests has unavoidably placed young people who are not actual gang members into prison systems where they are immersed in gang culture. Across the country in Charlotte, NC, which has adopted many of the hard-line policies of Los Angeles, the city’s Mayor Patrick McCrory recently conceded that “young black men not affiliated with gangs could easily be mistaken for gang members,” according to the Times article.  He was quoted as saying, “If they act and dress like a gang member, most people will assume they are a gang member, and that’s not beneficial for anyone. This gang-like culture is tough to separate out — whether that’s fair or not, that’s the truth.”

And it really is the truth. I can easily recall years of being unfairly stereotyped myself.  And even today, I still experience it from time to time, due to some of my rougher features, I suppose. But that’s where the problem lies. The vast majority of young people are positive and caring citizens, and I truly believe that by casting such a wide net to catch violent gang members, we are in fact creating more criminals in the process. 

In Boston, Police Commissioner Edward S. Davis said that his department focuses only on violent offenders now. The Times article quotes him as saying, “We clearly don’t participate in a wide net of arrests. What we’re trying to do is be very focused on those individuals who are actually shooting.” For that, I applaud him.

Bullying Knows No Borders

Although adults may not worry as much about bullying as they do sexual predators, bullying remains a serious problem for kids. And as the Internet has enhanced our ability to communicate, it has also empowered bullies to be even more destructive than they might be otherwise. As more research shows that large numbers of teens cyberbully and are cyberbullied, governments are increasingly trying to protect children. The government has already responded to this threat in some states. Cyberbullying isn’t limited to the United States, though; according to statistics reported by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC),“[m]ore than a third of [British] 12 to 15-year-olds have faced some kind of cyberbullying.” In response, the British government has issued new guidance to schools to help curb cyberbullying.

The British measures are interesting because of their seriousness. The measures urge “pupils’ mobile phones to be classed as potentially offensive weapons and for them to be banned during school sessions.” Teachers are also being trained to confiscate phones of bullies, where they are not already banned. Additionally, according to the BBC article the measures acknowledge that cyberbullying “differs [from traditional bullying] in that it invades home and personal space and the perpetrator can use the cloak of anonymity.” Thus, teachers are being trained about “how to have offensive or malicious material removed from websites.” This move will help extend the school’s protection into the student’s home. The protection, however, is not only for students; as explained in the article: “Misuse of Internet sites can destroy teachers' confidence and professional reputation and provide yet another vehicle for false allegations against staff.”

I applaud the British educational system for taking cyberbullying so seriously. Additionally, their response confirms something this blog has noted before—cyberbullying affects adults as well as children. The measures, though, raise discomfort;  school rules do not necessarily go through the same democratic process as other laws, and school officials are not law enforcement officers. Notwithstanding my strong desire to see bullying prevented, having schools applying rules off of their campuses makes me uncomfortable. I’d far prefer a more whole-community approach that involves parents and other community leaders along with awareness campaigns, such as those NCPC has run this year. However, as a person concerned about cyberbullying, I will be watching the results of the British initiatives closely—I may be an idealist, but I’m a pragmatic one.

Violent Crime Increases for Second Straight Year

According to this year's Crime in the United States report, violent crime continued to rise between 2005 and 2006. The report, which is published each year by the FBI, indicates a 1.9 percent increase in overall violent crime compared with 2005.  This spike in crime is the second in two years and signals the first steady increase in violent crime since 1993.  It also indicates a serious need for more crime prevention education and training to drive these statistics back down.

The news is not all bad, however, and some other highlights of the report include a comparable drop in property crime, which includes burglary, larceny/theft, and motor vehicle theft.  Also, at least some elements of violent crime, such as "forcible rape," actually declined. And as disappointing as the rise in violent crime may be, the current rate of violent crime is still "the third lowest total in the past two decades."

But there is much to be done to ensure that the violent crime rate ceases its upward trend.  We are experiencing a significant departure from the past 10 years in which violent crime rates either declined or remained relatively flat.  It's important that we do not let the pattern continue, and to that end, we must take action now.  The only way to do it is through prevention.

Higher Prevention

After tragic events, the question I always hear loudest is “How could this have been prevented?” I realize that, working at the National Crime Prevention Council, I may hear more talk about prevention than most, but we’re obviously not alone; in response to the Virginia Tech massacre, the university is working to implement “nearly 200 recommendations — some of them costing millions of dollars — in response to the April 16 campus massacre,” according to a recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Many of these recommendations are aimed at preventing future tragedies. In the research and implementation being done at Virginia Tech, there is much to learn for crime prevention practitioners.

The Virginia Tech reports outline several environment design features that could help prevent or mitigate future disasters. These solutions span the prevention gamut, from Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design to improved communications plans with the campus community. Many of the recommendations are obvious (e.g., add locks to doors, improve communication with students); as explained clearly in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ review of the tragedy and expressed in a subhead, “Where We Know What to Do, We Have to be Better at Doing It.” Much crime prevention, though, is common sense; our problem is that common sense is infrequently implemented. If anything good can come out of tragedy, it’s the research into what really can work, and how to make prevention a practical reality.

It is crucial, though, that this work extend beyond Virginia Tech; although VT was the victim this time, that doesn’t mean the rest of us are immune to danger. If you’re a community leader or prevention practitioner, study the federal report, the state report, and the university’s report. Keep your eye on the university’s findings, and advocate for change in your community; crime prevention may seem like common sense, but it is not nearly common enough in our lives, and it needs advocates and research to make it a reality.

Our Domestic Arms Race

Normally, blog posts here at Prevention Works tend to be relatively light on Fridays.  However, today I’m going to break that mold and present our faithful readers with a topic that is anything but that.  The issue that I am referring to has recently come to a head in Miami, FL.  In the past, it has come up in states such as Oklahoma, Iowa, Connecticut, and California, and changed the way law enforcement officers patrol their beats.  Undoubtedly it will come up in other cities and states in the future, and stir more intense discussion. 

The issue?  Whether police officers should carry assault rifles. 

A recent article from the New York Times says that police officers in Miami now have the choice to arm themselves with assault rifles as they battle what seems to be a rise in criminals’ use of the same kind of weapons.  The article quoted the city’s police chief, John F. Timoney, as saying, “This is something we do not do with any relish.  We do this reluctantly.”

And for good reason.  Aside from directly playing into the escalation of arms and combat with neighborhood criminals, the idea of arming police officers with assault rifles has many more implications involving the community as a whole.  Historically, assault weapons have primarily been used only by law enforcement specialists like SWAT teams, but over the years more and more cities have adopted new policies that allow police officers to do the same. 

In Los Angeles, police officers have been equipped with assault weapons ever since an infamous 1997 shootout in which officers were outgunned by a man with an AK-47 assault rifle.  But even in smaller cities such as Stillwater, OK, police officers are issued the weapons. 

While I certainly want the best protection available for our nation’s police officers, and while I recognize that Miami has a notorious history of drug-related violence, I am not convinced that this current strategy does, in fact, afford our police the best protection.  Nor am I convinced that it’s a good idea in the first place. 

Most of the time, a police officer will never need an assault weapon while patrolling his or her beat.  And for the times when assault weapons are necessary to combat a criminal threat, why not call in the specialists?  Why not strengthen the local SWAT team instead of fundamentally changing the way the city’s police department has handled crime in the past?  Would the distribution of more Kevlar vests actually provide more protection?  I do appreciate the fact that, according to the Times article, the police are using new “bullets designed to shatter after they have hit something to avoid striking bystanders or other unintended targets,” but the proliferation of larger weapons, in general, is cause for concern.

As usual, I encourage comments on this blog, but today I will expect them.  I know there are a lot of conflicted feelings on this subject, so please… let’s discuss it.

Prevention Education

Given a choice of how my tax dollars are spent, all things being equal, I’d rather spend them on education than incarceration. I don’t think this is a controversial stance (although you’re free to post a comment if you disagree). Although the two are very different, according to a recent report by the Justice Policy Institute, they are also related; according to recent research cited in the report, there is a relationship between education spending and incarceration savings. This report brings together quite a bit of exciting research, and helps put dollar values on prevention, which easily makes this a better Monday for me.

Although the report does not offer any concrete causal relationships between education and incarceration, it does offer five intriguing correlations between the two. They are predicable but reassuring (saving the last point, which is predicable but disappointing):

• Higher high school graduation rates correlate positively with lower crime-related expenses.
• States with higher high school graduation rates have less violent crime than the national average.
• “States with higher college enrollment rates experienced lower violent crime rates than states with lower college enrollment rates.”
• “States that made bigger investments in higher education saw better public safety outcomes.”
• “The risk of incarceration, higher violent crime rates, and low educational attainment are concentrated among communities of color, who are more likely to suffer from barriers to educational opportunities.”

Unfortunately, currently all of the points are statistical inferences, meaning that they draw a relationship between two things but do not give any sense that one causes the other. However, the report does include a section that explains why it is reasonable to believe that educational investment is a form of crime prevention, which research backs and further research will strenuously test, I hope. And, most interestingly, in the first point, the report cites research that shows “a 5 percent increase in male high school graduation rates would product an annual savings of almost $5 billion in crime-related expenses.” This is particularly exciting because it is a cause and effect relationship (greater spending on education causes less spending on crime) and, better yet, it offers a prevention technique (education) and assesses an associated dollar value. Research like this provides a powerful tool for anyone arguing for the merits of crime prevention, and I hope to see more similar research. If you know of any, please do comment.

Hat tip to Corrections Sentencing.

Cyberbullying PSA Contest: Call for Entries

Well folks, NCPC has successfully completed its move across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, to Arlington, VA, and we are currently settling into our new offices and exploring our new neighborhood.  So we thought it was time to jump back into the swing of things and keep our readers updated on emerging trends and the latest in crime prevention news and best practices. Today, I would like to celebrate the return of Prevention Works with an exciting announcement: Sony Creative Software and The Ad Council have teamed up with NCPC to launch a nationwide contest to create the best public service announcements (PSAs) promoting awareness of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying has gained widespread attention recently as parents, teachers, and the news media have come to better understand this emerging issue. People now recognize cyberbullying as a serious problem that can have extraordinarily detrimental effects on children and teens. And just this week, new research was published that suggests one in four teenagers participates in cyberbullying and about six percent of teens bully others online frequently.

We are calling on the public to develop creative and effective cyberbullying prevention messages. You can enter in two different categories, professional or academic (K-12), and you will find details on both categories at the Sony Creative Software website. The winners will be aired on national television next spring.  In addition, Sony will provide a large prize package, worth up to $25,000.   

So spread the word, and get those creative juices flowing!  Tell any schools and community groups in your area about the contest, encourage them to enter, and enter yourself.  Who knows?  It could be your PSA that airs on national television next year.