How to reduce crime

[Vegard Pompey]

I'm in kind of a bind here. By tomorrow, I have to write a short paper on how crime could be reduced. I'm not supposed to write it at home. I'm supposed to write it during one class, but I can bring statistics or other material that I need from home... I don't have a printer, all I can really bring is personal notes.

This is a pretty complex issue and I'm not really looking for comprehensive answers as much as answers for how to summarize it in two or three pages that the teacher will be content with.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

Laws create criminals. Reduce the number of laws to reduce criminals and crime.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Laws create criminals. Reduce the number of laws to reduce criminals and crime.

I thought about that. I don't think the teacher would be content with that. To write an answer I would be content with, I would first have to define crime which would be difficult in itself. Like I said, I'm looking for tips on how to write something the teacher will be content with.

 

[Anthile]

Laws create criminals. Reduce the number of laws to reduce criminals and crime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_Else's_Problem#Somebody_Else.27s_Problem_field


To give a proper answer: better education leads to a lower crime rate.

First article I found: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20071213/ai_n21164873/

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

From what I've heard violent crime and murder rates have been falling almost everywhere in developed countries if you look at centuries of data. I'm not sure of an easy way to find that data.

But the basic trend there is: higher standard of living leads to less crime.

You could argue the welfare state issue. Denmark has very few muggings or buglaries, because everyone is taken care of. (From an anarchist point of view, the state is doing the stealing for them.)

Or you could argue that we should get rid of the drug war and prostitution. Even if you ignore "drug crimes" and "prostitution" from your list of what counts as crime, the loss of these two revenue sources will help get rid of drug gangs. They won't have the funds to commit more crimes. The lower price of drugs (especially meth and cocaine) will make it so that we don't have methheads running around stealing scrap metal to get their fix. (Or if they are, they won't have to steal as much.)

If we reformed immigration laws to make it easier to immigrate to the US, and legalized prostitution and drugs, the revenue of drug cartels in the US and Mexico would drop. We could restore Mexico's government!

Not to mention if we allowed the Afghanistan government to cultivate and sell heroin, then the heroin farmers could come to our side, rather than being stuck dealing with the taliban. The taliban gets a ton of money from heroin revenue. We need to bankrupt them if we're going to win the war.

Some sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/world/asia/19taliban.html

Estimates of the Taliban’s annual revenue vary widely. Proceeds from the illicit drug trade alone range from $70 million to $400 million a year, according to Pentagon and United Nations officials. By diversifying their revenue stream beyond opium, the Taliban are frustrating American and NATO efforts to weaken the insurgency by cutting off its economic lifelines, the officials say.

 

[preilemus]

legalise abortion if it isnt already. seriously.

the majority of women who have abortions feel that they dont have the proper means to raise a child in the best way. if you guessed that most of these women come from poverty or other situations lacking opportunity, you would be correct, and this is also true for the background of most criminals. sure, this doesnt have immediate results, but give it 20 years or so...

this is probably the best explanation for the drastic drop in crime in the US in the early 90's. (what happened about 20 years earlier? Roe v. Wade)

 

[Kuu]

kill all humans. no more crime. ever.

 

[Cassandra]

http://atlanticreview.org/archives/434-Murder-Rate-in-the-United-States-and-Germany.html

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-218es.html


http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5268.html

http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Government-Establish-Program-Reduce-Juvenile-Crime/3329

http://www.helium.com/knowledge/139251-reducing-the-crime-and-recidivism-rate-in-the-united-states


Take a look at what other countries are doing (this example is England):

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/
http://www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/

On a lighter note, all we really need is this:

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Lay off cracking down on the weed....but that's only for the US (I don't thing Vegard is from there).

Better education
Higher standard of living
Keep the ones who still do commit crimes locked up longer, most crimes are committed by the same 2-3% of the population (repeat offenders).

 

[SEPKA]

I think Freakonomic (book) have a few chapter on reducing crime.

 

[Da Blob]

Well in a worst case scenario, one could promote morality within a society to reduce crime....

 

[Claverhouse]

WTF Have You Been Smoking ?

If we reformed immigration laws to make it easier to immigrate to the US,

As America has 37 million foreign-born [ Pew Hispanic Center pdf ] and 11 million of those are illegals [ Center for Immigration Studies ] ( the illegals have declined by a million since due to the depression they are going home ), and: 'Americans of all races have brought their family size down to the point where the Census Bureau projects that the US population would stabilise by 2050 at 280-300 million – but with the current mass immigration, it is projected to soar to 400-500 million.' [ Open Democracy 2003 ], I really don't think the present barriers are going to lead to a sorrowful shortage of immigrants. A shortage of water, maybe.

Apart from the mystery of God knows why people love them so, or feel sorry for them --- apart from über-capitalists from Collis Huntingdon ( who wanted unrestricted Chinese immigration, since he could pay them a dollar a day [ even in 1860, a dollar wasn't something to retire on ] ) to Bill Gates --- immigrants bring their own amounts of crime alongside; from the simple muslim parents, forced to slay their daughters for being corrupted by western values, to Mexicans whom normal Mexicans are glad to get rid of* driving without care.

and legalized prostitution and drugs, the revenue of drug cartels in the US and Mexico would drop.

I agree with legalizing those things; but to imagine that the cartels will immediately return to simple pastoral or industrial lives of virtue is... idealistic. The Mob didn't go away when Prohibition ended, but turned to preying on legitimate business. And the cartels aren't driven by poverty as much as the fact that they are born criminals. People who decapitate stray groups of policemen as a warning, or who keep oil-drums of acid with which to remove traces of their enemies are not going to make good citizens ( although each has a deciding vote in a democracy ).

We could restore Mexico's government!

Isn't that something for Mexicans to do ? And if you argue that in a democracy the individual citizen has absolutely no power to change anything, it's still not something for America to interfere with.

Not to mention if we allowed the Afghanistan government to cultivate and sell heroin, then the heroin farmers could come to our side, rather than being stuck dealing with the taliban. The taliban gets a ton of money from heroin revenue.

It's rather complicated; but whilst those repellent little puritans first allowed opium in Afghanistan to grow for unbelievers, by 2000 - 01 they had nearly eliminated it as a factor and had they stayed in power Afghanistan might be no longer a major source for the drug trade. Now, out of power they pragmatically take any funding they can get.

But, so do others...

But it's extremely misleading to imply that America doesn't sponsor favoured poppy entrepreneurs. As we learned yesterday from Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen in the New York Times: Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. [ Economist ]

We need to bankrupt them if we're going to win the war.

You're not gonna win this war.




Claverhouse


* Remember when Carter opened his heart and the US borders to all refugees, and Castro immediately emptied the prisons... ? I'm gonna miss El Jefe.

 

[Claverhouse]

A Negro Project

this is probably the best explanation for the drastic drop in crime in the US in the early 90's. (what happened about 20 years earlier? Roe v. Wade)

yeah, many black Americans believe abortion is aimed at them by The Man to keep their numbers low...

Incidentally:

Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available.

Abortion killed at least 203,991 blacks in the 36 states and two cities (New York City and the District of Columbia) that reported abortions by race in 2005, according to the CDC. During that same year, according to the CDC, a total of 198,385 blacks nationwide died from heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. These were the seven leading causes of death for black Americans that year.

...

When asked to comment on this report, Dr. Freda Bush, a pro-life obstetrician and gynecologist in private practice in Jackson, Miss., told CNSNews.com that she found the explanation for the high rate of black abortions “disingenuous.”

“I would just like for them to explain why there’s such a significant proportion of their (Planned Parenthood) clinics that are located in minority communities,” said Bush, who is black. “So if you’ll notice, I did not mention that as a factor when I talked to you [earlier], so I was not accusing them of anything.

“I was just pointing out the fact that we have more, but since they brought it up, I would like for them to explain where their clinics are located, and why their clinics are located in that area,” she added.

“I would also like for an explanation of why their founder, Margaret Sanger, who was a known eugenist, also had a Negro project, and an explanation if that was not directed at the ‘undesirables,’” said Bush. “So, I’m not accusing them of anything. I would just like an explanation for the practices that they have continued.”

Dr. Alveda King, niece of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a pro-life activist. In August 2007 she told a meeting of Priests for Life that abortionists “plant their killing centers in minority neighborhoods and prey upon women who think they have no hope.”

“The great irony,” she said, “is that abortion has done what the Klan only dreamed of.”



Claverhouse

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Judge Dredd

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

Re: WTF Have You Been Smoking ?

Apart from the mystery of God knows why people love them so, or feel sorry for them --- apart from über-capitalists from Collis Huntingdon ( who wanted unrestricted Chinese immigration, since he could pay them a dollar a day [ even in 1860, a dollar wasn't something to retire on ] ) to Bill Gates --- immigrants bring their own amounts of crime alongside; from the simple muslim parents, forced to slay their daughters for being corrupted by western values, to Mexicans whom normal Mexicans are glad to get rid of* driving without care.

You're exaggerating the crime that immigrants bring with them, I think. I was mainly using immigration as a way to cut down on gang revenue, since the drug cartels and coyotes that take fees to help mexicans across the border won't have as much revenue. Why the hate for uber-capitalists? You're attaching unrelated demonized figures to my proposal.

I agree with legalizing those things; but to imagine that the cartels will immediately return to simple pastoral or industrial lives of virtue is... idealistic. The Mob didn't go away when Prohibition ended, but turned to preying on legitimate business. And the cartels aren't driven by poverty as much as the fact that they are born criminals. People who decapitate stray groups of policemen as a warning, or who keep oil-drums of acid with which to remove traces of their enemies are not going to make good citizens ( although each has a deciding vote in a democracy ).

That doesn't matter, they will be born-criminals without money. I think that there are people involved in these cartels that view it as a job, they saw an opportunity and went for it. The idea that they have an inherent desire to commit crime is flawed. It's just a way to make money for most people. Are drug mules going to continue to smuggle drugs for the fun of it, if no one is paying them to do so?

Isn't that something for Mexicans to do ? And if you argue that in a democracy the individual citizen has absolutely no power to change anything, it's still not something for America to interfere with.

You're right, it is something that the Mexicans should do. However America still has a philosophy of helping other countries. And yeah, I know we usually do a shitty job of it. Nevertheless helping Mexico become more secure will help the US become more secure. The drug cartels that have free reign in Mexico also operate in the US.

It's rather complicated; but whilst those repellent little puritans first allowed opium in Afghanistan to grow for unbelievers, by 2000 - 01 they had nearly eliminated it as a factor and had they stayed in power Afghanistan might be no longer a major source for the drug trade. Now, out of power they pragmatically take any funding they can get.

But, so do others...

But it's extremely misleading to imply that America doesn't sponsor favoured poppy entrepreneurs. As we learned yesterday from Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen in the New York Times: Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials. [ Economist ]

I'll admit I don't understand that much about the heroin trade and Afghanistan. But I don't get what you're trying to say. What's your point? How does it relate to mine?

I agree that the Afghanistan war is probably not going to be won. *shrug*

The Economist is a fantastic magazine. <3

Also, your tone is rude. I'm just trying to bring up ideas, and I feel hurt when you use personal attacks like "You're not going to win this war" and post title of "WTF Have you been smoking?". You obviously have passionate feelings about these issues, but let's keep it objective.

 

[Claverhouse]

Re: WTF Have You Been Smoking ?

You're exaggerating the crime that immigrants bring with them, I think.

Probably not:


The federal Bureau of Prisons reported on June 24, 2006, that 27.2 percent of the total of 190,565 federal prisoners are criminal aliens. In May, 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that the federal cost of incarcerating criminal aliens from 2001 through 2004 was approximately $5.8 billion. The federal cost of incarceration per inmate, the U.S. Department of Justice said in 2003, was $25,327 a year.

In its 1/28/09 article titled "FBI: Burgeoning gangs behind up to 80% of U.S. crime" USA Today reported that “criminal gangs in the USA have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80% of crimes in communities across the nation... The major findings in a report by the Justice Department's National Gang Intelligence Center ...conclude gangs are the 'primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs' and several are 'capable' of competing with major U.S.-based Mexican drug-trafficking organizations…

Why the hate for uber-capitalists? You're attaching unrelated demonized figures to my proposal.

I dunno, maybe because they are dishonourable old brutes who have always attempted to butcher and defraud their workers; and who --- relatedly --- are always the driving force in increasing unlimited immigration to lower wages by replacing workers and destroying local cultures ?

The idea that they have an inherent desire to commit crime is flawed. It's just a way to make money for most people.

I daresay Pablo Escobar could have made money in a way that didn't involve murdering people had he wished. More probably, he did wish.

On a happier note, his famous zoo is now being restored, and the surviving animals fed. There's an awful lot of money in drug-dealing.

Are drug mules going to continue to smuggle drugs for the fun of it, if no one is paying them to do so?

I'm not sure they do it for the money so much as because other persuasions are brought to bear. It's not like being a mule is profitable ( unless you impress your bosses by devotion and am promoted to managerial class ).

I'll admit I don't understand that much about the heroin trade and Afghanistan. But I don't get what you're trying to say. What's your point? How does it relate to mine?

That's it's more complex than bad Talibanistas making money from heroin. The US government is complicit; as are our gallant allies the Pakistanis; and as are a whole range of businessmen and transporters. To imply that removing heroin revenue from this tedious gang is a good reason for legalization derogates from the fact that drugs should be legal simply as a freedom; and not because it would possibly help defeat one of America's current enemies.

Also, your tone is rude. I'm just trying to bring up ideas, and I feel hurt when you use personal attacks like "You're not going to win this war"

I would prefer the adjective 'brisk'. And that was in direct response to your statement: We need to bankrupt them if we're going to win the war.

Note that 'you' is the correct mirror to 'we'; and that I in no way hold you personally responsible for the war being fought, lost or won. Also I don't care if the USA wins or loses the Afghan War --- though it's probably nicer if we didn't keep invading muslim countries for their own good.

You obviously have passionate feelings about these issues

Au contraire, I feel absolutely nothing for any issue except monarchism and animal cruelty. It wouldn't bother me if half the world died of an overdose tomorrow. I just don't feel a One World ! sympathy for people who are no concern of mine and who are generally happier if we impose our own values only in our own countries and not in their's.



Claverhouse

 

[Anthile]

I think the more important question is whether people even intend to win the Afghanistan war.

 

[Ghost1986]

i would suggest focusing on 1 thing per page and center your topics around the impact of education, deterrence and the laws them selves. really there is no one way to reduce crime sense the causes of crime are numerous. should you really go to jail for a worthless amount of pot? would the death penalty really stop a thief who needed money to live? would higher education and standard of living really stop people from killing if there were no consequences? the answer to all is most likely not.

 

[walfin]

If you don't already know this - always plan your essay.

Apart from that, give yourself a rough time/word limit for each point.