(49)    Wed 8 Oct 97 16:10
By: Rod Swift
To: All
Re: Crime Stats
St:
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@EID:f3a9 23488140
@MSGID: 3:690/660.0 343b400a
Recently, the notorious Child from Georgia(tm) came in here
claiming that the increase in crime since the mid-1960s could be
attributable to "the removal of the bible from schools".

He then cites crime rates in the US up until about 1994, showing
an overall trend.

Now, I was surprised to tune in to NBC News' "Today" program on
Monday 6 October 1997.  In an interview with Katie Couric, some
government boffin was commenting on the recent FBI statistics on
crime.

In those statistics, it says that the latest year's statistics is
the FIFTH consecutive year in which the crime rate has DROPPED.
Further, and more importantly, that the crime rate per capita is
now the lowest in 25 YEARS... or since 1971.

Did someone shove the bible back into the classroom?  I wonder!
Maybe it has to do with Clinton being in the White House over the
past 5.5 years, eh? :) :)

And weren't the highest crime rate years when Republicans were in
office?  Hmmm... Anyway, back to the interview...

This expert (I didn't get his name, it was 1am here and I didn't
note his name at the start of the interview) also explained the
reasons why the crime rate was extremely high from the late-70s
to the early-90s.

        * The Baby Boom -- now that teenagers from the baby boom
          have moved out of being in the age where criminality is
          high, the rates have declined.

        * Community Policing -- a greater role and penetration of
          community and inner-city policing is cutting crime
          rates.

        * Increased Incarceration -- is having an effect on
          reducing crime rates, but in the future may have further
          ramifications with reoffenders participating in more
          heinous crimes.

        * The War on Drugs -- the war on drugs has been a major
          fuel toward the *creation* of crime as the proceeds of
          crimes like theft are used to purchase drugs (and when
          the price of drugs goes up because of squeezing of
          supply, crime goes up when addicts have to pay for it).

        * Change in Parenting -- most crime occurs in the hours
          in which children are not in school but parents are
          at work, and the increase in the number of dual-working
          parent families has exacerbated teen crime rates.

It seems that a number of demographic (baby boom), socioeconomic
(parenting styles) and policing (incarceration, policing types,
prohibitionism causing crimes of "necessity") are just major
examples of the types of influences over the level of crimes.

Strangely enough, this guy never said anything about the bible.
Surely a criminologist wouldn't have forgotten a major item of
evidence, would he?

Rod "...how about that for a surprise." Swift :)

 * OLX 2.1 TD * Dyslexic agnostics don't know whether there is a dog!

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