Frank Zimring has always been one of the better criminologists out there.
This nine minute video from the Vera Institute of Justice hows some of the reasons why.
Tag: causes of crime
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Gang membership
Do you ever see a headline that says “Gang Membership Down”?
I’m suspicious. Gang membership did not increase 25% in one year. That I can guarantee. -
Islamophobia?
I’m pro-Muslim. I sound funny just saying that. I’m not too keen on religion or zealots in general. But why would I be anti-Muslim any more than anti-Jew or anti-Christian? I have good friends who are Muslims. I have students who are Muslims. I have neighbors who are Muslim. I’ve traveled to Muslim countries. Muslims all nice people. Well, not all of them, but you know what I mean. People are not bad because of their religion. It simply doesn’t make sense to hate people because of their religion. I’m not going to debate that issue.
But…
Am I an Islamophobe? [cue scary music]
Timemagazine has an article about Islamophobia [reprise scary music]. One of the questions Timeasks is “Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers.”That’s supposed to show Islamophobia. Forty-six percent of people responded in the affirmative.
But…
I would respond in the affirmative. I mean, I haven’t done a study and certainly not historically (the Christians have a pretty bad track record from, say 1000 AD to well into the 20th century!). But today, if you were to look at people killed in acts of religious-inspired violence, most of those doing the killing believe they’re acting in the name of Islam (Most of the victims are Muslim too, I would add).
What if parts of Islam aremore likely to encourage violence against others? And I’m not saying that most Muslims agree with these zealots.
It’s like asking if you believe that African-Americans are more likely than whites to commit acts of violence in America. Well… if you say yes are you a racist? It’s un-P.C. to talk about it, but blacks aremore likely than whites to commit violent crime in America. And yes, the academic in me wants to mention class, poverty, education, and other factors that explain much more than race, but yes, there is a crude-correlation between race and violent crime. We can be liberal and tolerant and not deny reality, right? To know that doesn’t make me racist, I hope.
So why would thinking that Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence be a sign of Islamophobia? What if it’s true?
Shouldn’t we be working harder to end violence rather than pretend it doesn’t exist?
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The Talented Tenth
W.E.B. DuBois (pronounced doo-boyz, by the way, cause he wasn’t French) wrote about “The Talented Tenth.”
DuBois was, among other things, a great American, a suffragist, a sociologist, and a Harvard grad. Had his groundbreaking The Philadelphia Negrobeen written today, I can only wonder if it would have been called, DuBois in the Hood.
In contrast to the Talented Tenth, he wrote:
At the bottom, of course, quibbles the mole with his eyes in the earth. Aye! truly at the bottom, at the very bottom; at the bottom of knowledge, down in the very depth of knowledge there where the roots of justice strike into the lowest soil of Truth.
This came to mind after reading that 1 in 10 criminal youths in Illinois are held longer than their sentence because they have no place to go.
Notes in the records tell sad stories. “Youth has no family that will take him,” reads the comment in the case of one downstate boy who was sent to prison for aggravated robbery and was still there two months beyond his scheduled release.
“Placement denied 5X w/relatives,” reads the status report on another case.
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“Aunt denied by parole. Uncle has refused. Working on other (extended) family,” one document reads.In another case, in which a 20-year-old was more than a year past his ARD, the comment reads: “Youth had approved parole site; mother had change of heart, site denied. Mother seeking other resources.”
It’s sad (though sometimes perfectly understandable) that nobody, not even parents, wants responsibility for some of these kids. I know that no person should be thrown away at such a young age. But I also have no illusions that all people, just because they’re younger than eighteen, are angels that can be redeemed. I arrested of few pretty bad youngsters myself.
Sometimes they had no home to go to (in which case I did have some sympathy for the kid… I mean, given the choice between living in a f*cked up “home” like the ones I saw or slinging on the corner, I know what I would choose).
Certainly the problems in part–sometimes a small part and sometimes a large part–rest with the parents (or lack thereof). But placing blame isn’t always enough. And some times the family was, if anything, too tough and strict–though who am I to cast doubt? If you raise three good kids and fourth is a f*ck-up… I don’t know, maybe you’ve done a good job. What are the odds we expect in neighborhoods where most boys end up doing time?
DuBois had an answer: education. It’s a good one. But in the shorter term, what isthe answer?
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Undoubtedly the most demoralizing force in the country today
It’s official:
Responsibility of the Moving Picture Show for Crime
The demoralizing character of some of the moving picture shows, says the New Jersey Law Journal, continues to be exemplified by proceedings from time to time in our local and county criminal courts. One of the latest instances was a case which came before Judge Case, of the Somerset County courts, where a bright little fellow of nine years of age was arraigned before the judge for truancy and for incorrigibility. The prosecutor informed the court that the root of the boy’s misconduct was the moving picture show, and the counsel for the boy stated that the offender had been a good child at home and obedient until he developed the passion for attending moving picture shows. The account of the case then goes on to say: “When the boy was commanded to stand up before Judge Case he burst into tears. Judge Case called him to his seat behind the bar and talked to him kindly, after which he announced that he would place him in charge of Probation Officer Osbourn for three years. In closing his remarks Judge Case said that the moving picture shows were undoubtedly the most demoralizing force in the country to-day. The pictures had a great fascination for even adults, and the graphic portrayals of holdups, robberies, and of immoral scenes and characters, made a lasting impression on the minds of children that were demoralizing in the extreme. Judge Case said that the court would expect the law relating to moving picture shows to be strictly obeyed in the county.”
From the Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology.Vol. 1(5) January, 1911. p. 788.
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The family that robs together…
Marc Perrusquia in the Memphis Commercial Appeal has a good story about the extensive criminal activities of one very criminal family.
Over seven decades, Porterfield and several members of his extended family have been a violent, drug-peddling, thieving scourge on Shelby County. They’ve been involved in at least 14 shootings, four murders and countless break-ins and assaults.
In all, 407 arrests.
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Breaking the cycle is a daunting, and costly, proposition. Yet, given the alternative — states are spending $50 billion a year to imprison offenders — it’s a challenge worth taking on, said Oregon social scientist J. Mark Eddy. -
Small-town values
Just so you don’t get to thinking that cities and ghettos have a lock on stupid senseless crimes.
“The seeming senselessness of the killing of Kimberly Cates – hacked to death in her bed last week in Mont Vernon, N.H., allegedly by teenagers who chose her at random and didn’t know who she was.”
The storyby Sarah Schweitzer in the Boston Globe.
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“Running only leads to more running”
A Chicago Tribunepiece on why the Fenger High School students fight. It doesn’t really answer the question. But then again it’s not like there is a good answer. What it comes down to seems to be the belief that kids from the projects are “invading” another neighborhood (with seemingly very similar socioeconomic characteristics) where the high school is.
“As far as I know, they don’t like us,” said Young, who dreams of playing professional football even though he’s not on the school team, “and the way I feel, we don’t like them.”
The reporter can’t actually determine any real difference between the groups (though I love dig “even though he’s not on the school team”). Perhaps the only thing that might be considered profound is this line: “I’m not gonna run from it…. Why should I have to run from where I live? If I have to run from where I live, where else do I go?”
I guess no different than East Side versus West Side (Baltimore), Bloods versus Crips (LA), Jets versus Sharks (Broadway), or East Platform versus West Platform (L-going Cubs fans).
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Crime Control
A reader of mine read John Seabrook’s story in the New Yorker, about John Jay Professor David Kennedy. He send me these thoughtful comments:
I’m still turning the article over in my head. This may come off as a rant but I don’t mean it as such. The piece was thought provoking for a host of reasons. I’m fairly certain you know Kennedy, and I’m certain he’s sharp and a nice guy, so my criticism isn’t directed at him.
That said, is this the best the field of criminology can offer urban policing? Anthropologists hawking come to Jesus meetings with the police? I present these questions to you because you’ve lived in both worlds. Two of my degrees are in criminal justice and I spent almost 10 years on the street, yet it’s almost impossible to reconcile the two endeavors. The law enforcement academic education that grew out of the 60’s has had two generations to ferment, yet we aren’t seeing much in the way of results. I’m wondering if it isn’t because the academic world has never been honest with itself about how the streets works.
From the article: “Rational men, faced with the choice between pleasure and pain, freedom and incarceration, and benefits and sanctions, will make the choice that yields the greater happiness. This assumption is one of the foundations of the American criminal-justice system.” How’s that working out for us?
You and I both know the rational man thesis is bullshit. If you haven’t already, give Dan Ariely’sPredictably Irrational and Peter Ubel’sFree Market Madnessa look. There’s a growing body of evidence that’s chipping away at the idea of man as purely rational. When I try to explain criminals to people the analogy I use to explain their outlook is Hawthorne’s short storyBartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.They’re offered every chance to join society but the refrain is always, “I would prefer not to.”
I started an intellectual exercise in reaction to the peace. In trying to understand what it was that bothered me about it I’ve been concocting my own list. Feel free to ignore, comment, or call bullshit at your leisure:
1) There is no off season for police. There is no finish line. This will go on as long as humanity does. Get rid of the zero sum mentality. Get rid of the ideal of a decisive end state. You will never conquer or win. The best you can hope for is to manage effectively. Make peace with that.
2) Zero tolerance policing is to a city what carpet bombing is to insurgency. There is a time and place for it, but those instances are limited. It’s guaranteed to get results you can measure and quantify, but it doesn’t mean you’re fixing the problem.
3) When you surge they know you’re surging and they’re waiting you out. They also know if you had the resources to really and truly control the chaos you would have by now.
4) Try the revolutionary step of asking the beat officers how to fix the problems.
5) Get out of your car. Very little effective policing can be done behind the driver’s seat. What is more, you will never be respected until you do.
6) What works in one neighborhood won’t always work in another. Anybody who tries to sell you a solution for all your problems is more interested in selling than solutions. Intelligence and analysis are good and have a definite place, but are usually oversold.
7) Don’t think of it as crime control but forestalling entropy. The latter incubates the former. If we keep viewing it as crime control then every time there’s a crime there is the implication that we’re losing.
8) Regardless of how good you are, there’s probably going to be an upswing in crime when you’re processing a youth bulge.
9) Making the drug trade the focus of your efforts will lead you into a cul de sac.
10) Code enforcement and the health inspector can be powerful cohorts in your efforts. They can be more effective in one fell swoop than weeks of criminal enforcement.
11) You can’t count on making arrests as a solution. There is a military adage about counterinsurgency: You can’t kill your way out of the problem. A corollary for criminal justice is that you can’t arrest your way out of a problem. Also, as any cop will tell you, courts have a stunning ability to find reasons for arrestees to not remain in jail or go to prison. There are simply too many points of failure downstream from arrest to rely on it as a solution. The streets are a multi-spectrum problem. Trying to force a solution through a logic gate of Arrest/Don’t Arrest will produce limited and suboptimal results.
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Balto Murders
Baltimore is number two in murders, after Detroit. (Brings to mind that old t-shirt… you Baltimore cops know the one I’m talking about.)
Peter Hermann writes:
The 107 people charged with murder last year had accumulated a combined 1,065 prior arrests – 380 related to guns and 99 related to drugs.
The 234 people killed last year had a combined 2,404 prior arrests – 162 related to guns and 898 related to drugs.
That’s an average of 10 arrests per suspect and 10.3 arrests per victim.
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Police repeatedly complain that the people they put in handcuffs only return to the streets to do more harm. Here are the number of times some murder suspects and victims from last year had been arrested: 74, 71, 49, 40, 38, 34, 29. … The list goes on.These numbers don’t say anything about conviction rates, and there’s a sad tale behind each case, a book-length reason why someone can get arrested 74 times before dying on a street corner or get arrested 71 times before being charged with murder.
Many are hopelessly sick addicts arrested on petty charges, such as loitering, or involving small amounts of drugs, which tend to pile up but don’t result in much jail time. Cases fall apart in Baltimore for a myriad of reasons that include an overwhelmed court system, distrust of police, jury nullification and witnesses and victims who are too scared or just don’t care to testify.